


Warrior Raging

by Vampiric_Charms



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Action/Adventure, F/M, Friendship, Mystery, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-22
Updated: 2015-08-17
Packaged: 2018-04-10 14:15:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 27,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4395002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vampiric_Charms/pseuds/Vampiric_Charms
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What starts as a standard murder investigation in the city takes a turn for the worse when Lin discovers who is behind the attack – and suddenly not only is her own life at risk, Tenzin’s is as well.  Her stubbornness and will to fight them may be all that is keeping her world from falling apart</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> _This is set about a year after Season 4._ No spoilers for the show.
> 
> A quick note, too, that this does not follow any "timeline" my one-shots may have been setting and stands alone from them, even if it does use some themes already mentioned in a few. You definitely do not have to read any of those to read this, though.
> 
> Implied and obvious Lin/Tenzin abounds here, but I’ve also spent a while crafting the plot for this one similar to _Silence of the Sound_ , so I hope you all enjoy the story as much as the pairing!

“No, no, wait – look, see, look.” The old man shook his head, wobbling slightly in the chair and putting his wrinkled hands out on the table to keep himself right. “Look, look. No, ma’am. What is your name again? Are you really a detective?”

“Della,” the young woman said with a large frown, resisting taking a step back from the stench of alcohol oozing from him. “Detective Della, sir, I assure you. I also assure you that you were, in fact, there. You were in the bar where the murders happened sleeping behind the counter!”

Lin watched from behind the mirror looking into the interrogation room as Della pushed, crossing her arms in annoyance. He’d been in there for over two hours, somewhere between consciousness and an intense drunken hangover – their only witness to a double murder from that morning, assuming he had been sober enough to remember anything. The murderer was in the wind, this man the only witness and the only one who could help point them in any kind of direction. Whoever had done this hadn’t even known he was there, crouched where the good whiskey was.

“No, ma’am, I was not.”

He smiled widely up at her and Della threw her hands in the air, looking through the glass to where she knew Lin was as she turned to grab a chair.

“Now _you_ look,” Della said softly, imploringly, sitting beside him at the stark metal table. “My officers and I found you there. Do you remember that? Do you remember being there?”

“Lang, miss.”

“I’m sorry?”

Lin saw her hesitate before looking back at the mirror and her chief again. Della was not a new officer by any means, but she had recently been given her title as detective. This was her first big case, and it was certainly proving a difficult one from the start. No evidence at the scene and a witness who was too drunk to be coherent. All reasons why Lin was watching this to begin with, both to oversee the case and to oversee Della, or to guide her if needed.

“My name,” the man continued before Della could do more than shift her head, “my name is Lang. Please call me Lang.”

“Right. All right, then. Lang – may we return to your morning at the Fishtail Bar?”

“Mm, no. I don’t think so, no. See, I don’t want to talk about that.” Lang looked over Della’s shoulder around the metal walls, eyes skimming past that mirror. Lin could see fear and agitation on his face through the haze of drink, and she wondered if Della could see it as well. She would give her new detective more time, though, before going in herself. “See, no. No, I didn’t _see_ anything. No. Not a thing. So you’re going to let me go now, right, you are.”

“No, Mister Lang, we’re not. You’ve been charged with drunken conduct in public, you’re not leaving.” She gazed at him as he lowered his head, thinking this over.

Suddenly he slipped a hand into his pocket and pulled out a bronze coin latched to a golden chain and plopped it on the table. Della watched in surprise as he slid it across to her, his hand shaking. “This, right here,” he told her, “bring me the lady who made this for me fifty years ago. She’ll protect me from those ruffians, not like _you_ hooligans, running around headless.”

She touched the coin, taking it into her hand and turning it over. A few lines were scratched into one side, but otherwise it was quite nondescript as she studied it. “What ruffians?” she asked, trying to keep him on track, away from lost loves and whatever else he may be playing.

“The Dragon Clan,” he whispered, the fear coming through clearly now.

Lin stiffened, her arms dropping to her sides.

“I’m not saying another word. Not until you bring _her_ back.” He pointed at the coin and then turned away, the conversation at an end.

Della scooted her chair back from the table and, coin in hand, left the room. Lin was waiting when she came into observation, a scowl pulling her face into an expression of apprehension. She was silent for a moment as the detective came to her side, concerned, and took the proffered coin without looking at it yet.

“You’re off the case,” Lin said firmly before Della could speak.

“What? Why?” She didn’t mean to sound so whining, and she immediately attempted to cover herself. “The Dragon Clan doesn’t scare me,” she added heartily, punctuating the words with a strong nod. “I’ll be fine, Chief, really.”

“You’ll end up as dead as those bodies we found this morning,” Lin snapped. “It’s amazing this Lang here is even alive right now.”

“But -”

“ _No_ , detective.” Della closed her mouth quickly under Lin’s angry glance. “It’s all right,” she said after a moment, the ire gone from her voice. “I’m taking the case myself, not giving it to someone else. And I may need a bit of assistance.” She gave her a tiny, fleeting grin the younger woman quickly returned. “But it will be my name on all the forms, in all the papers, and attached to everything to do with this – not yours. You may not think so now, but after the first death threat you’ll be glad I did this.”

“I understand, Chief. Thank you.”

She did understand, and Lin gave her a true smile then, small and tired though it may have been. “Bring Lang to the barracks to sleep this off. Maybe he’ll be more talkative when he wakes up sober. And detective, do not allow him to leave this building. I don’t want another soul added to the count.”

Della gave her a deep bow and left to gather Lang, who had dozed off at the table in the interrogation room.

It wasn’t until they had ambled off loudly down the hall together that Lin remembered the coin held loosely in her hand. She ran her thumb over the warming metal, feeling the bronze without looking at it, the imperfect gold of the chain with all its kinks and bends. The scratches stood out against her skin and she was able to tell just before bringing her hand up that they had been placed there by a Metalbender. 

“Shit,” she muttered under her breath.

She didn’t have to study the mark for more than a second to recognize it.

xXx

Lin heard Tenzin come in without looking up from the table in her dining room. Her uneaten dinner was pushed off to the side. The smell of food was entreating, but every time she tried to take a bite her stomach decided against her will it was no longer hungry. She’d eventually just pushed the whole meal away, that coin in front of her instead as her eyes unfocused on it.

“I’m sorry I’m late,” Tenzin said, walking into the room and removing his traveling cloak to drape over a chair before sitting beside her. “Rohan got into the bison stalls just as I was leaving, I had to give him a bath. What a mess he was, really, it was dis – Lin, are you all right?”

He noticed she hadn’t looked at him, likely not having heard a word out of his mouth until he said her name. After another moment, she slowly turned her gaze to his concerned one.

“You didn’t call me here for dinner, did you?” he asked, his eyebrows coming together.

“The Dragon Clan killed two more people this morning,” she told him softly. “Or commissioned the killing, I’m not sure yet.”

Tenzin swore under his breath, sinking back in the chair and staring over at the far wall. This clan – a gang, truly – had come to power almost ten months previous, making their climb bloody and brutal through the Triads and the Agni Kai. Where those two and their various branches, however, at least had a modicum of respect for the police and the people they shared their city with, the Dragon Clan was proving to not care about a single person standing in their way to the top of the chain to rule the underbelly of Republic City. 

In the fourteen hours since this one case had been opened, of the still-nameless man and woman killed in the bar, Lin herself had received an ‘official’ notice on her life. Even if she wasn’t taking it very seriously in regard for her own safety, she had put the station on high alert for the safety of those in her protection. No one allowed in past the desk without clearance, no one allowed to leave without a supervisor’s knowledge, and so forth.

These people would be brought down eventually, it was simply a matter of when. And, unfortunately, a matter of how much more blood would have to be spilled to get there.

“We had a witness,” she said into the deafening silence that had fallen between them.

Tenzin’s face visibly brightened at this news, and he sat straighter to look at her again. “That’s great! You’ll be able to break through their ranks by putting the killer in jail this time, won’t you? Why – why are you still so upset?”

Lin had simply raised an eyebrow at him, her gaze baleful and distant. “Because of this.” She picked up the coin, turning it over once in her hand to catch a glare from the electric light dangling from the ceiling. The chain wrapped around her fingers. “The miserable old man won’t say a single word to us until we bring the woman who made this here to “protect him”, as if _we_ wouldn’t be able to do that.” She scoffed, growing very agitated, and Tenzin reached out – not to take the coin but to put his hand over hers and lower it to the table again.

“Will it be a problem,” he asked, hesitating only at the irritation written across her body, “to find this lady?”

The laugh that erupted from her chest was brittle and barking, and she stood suddenly to leave him looking after her at a loss. “You tell me,” she snapped. “That _lady_ , Tenzin, is my mother.”

“Are you serious? How – how could you possibly know?” He stood as well, facing her back as she continued to glare into the sightless distance.

“This coin, the marks here – it’s what she used as her signature.”

He took the few paces to her side, finally extracting the metal from her hand. She gave it to him without resistance, falling in on herself slightly to cross her arms over her abdomen. Tenzin’s eyes flicked up to her, uncomfortable and waiting for him to deny her fear, and then down to the coin. Toph had never really bothered to learn the proper characters for her name, instead going about halfway to scribble something that may or may not have been correct if someone attempted to interpret what she wrote. Lines were usually off, spacing wrong, and so on. But anyone who mattered to her recognized it and that was that.

This…yes, this was what she eventually came to use as shorthand for her name when the need arose, imprinted right there on the otherwise smooth metallic face.

“How old is this?” He didn’t know what else to say and the question sounded silly, but Lin looked at him again anyway.

“Fifty years. At least, according to the man who had it.”

Lin extended her hand to receive the coin back, and she curled her fingers around it the moment the cool brass touched her skin. Tenzin watched her, aware of the rigid way she held her shoulders and back that indicated her stress was far beyond what she wanted to deal with. He sat at the table once more, taking in her untouched food and the darkness in the rest of her home. Without prompting, her took her plate and dragged it closer to see the plain rice she’d made was hardening, the vegetables long cold.

“Can I make you something fresh to eat?” The query was caring, and she forced some of the agitation from her posture. If anyone else had asked her in this situation, one of her officers or even her personal secretary, she would have given them a scathing reply, but Tenzin…

She sighed unhappily, coming to rejoin him at the table and sinking into her chair. “What am I supposed to do?” she questioned needlessly. 

Tenzin laid his hand on the table’s smooth wooden surface, palm upward, and Lin covered it with her own, twining their fingers together and lowering her gaze to see them both. It was a comfort, having him there as her mind was reeling through the case and the prospect of seeking her mother, and she held to that tightly to keep herself grounded.

“Are you thinking of going to search for her?” he asked gently, squeezing her fingers.

She shrugged helplessly. “I don’t necessarily want to,” she muttered, leaning forward to rest her other elbow on the table so she could put her chin on the back of her hand. “But this man – Ling, Lang, whatever his name is – he won’t cooperate without her, he doesn’t trust me the way he does Ma. Or did, I don’t have the faintest idea what their relationship was.”

“Perhaps,” he hedged with a very faint smile, “perhaps you _could_ go look for her, and make a small getaway out of it. You could use the time to yourself, get your thoughts back together.”

That idea hadn’t occurred to her and she frowned slightly. As nice as it sounded, to leave the city and her responsibilities to go on some kind of adventure the way she would have in her youth, she couldn’t. “Now isn’t exactly the time to be abandoning the case, Tenzin,” she said in way of explanation. “My officers need me to stay here – to work on this and to look after them.”

“Look after them,” he repeated her last words, his eyes narrowing as he caught on to what she had so far left unsaid. “Look after them because the Clan has already put out a – a – what are they called, a contract for you, or what is it? Just for working on this case?”

Her frown deepened and she didn’t respond, though that was enough of an answer. “I wish I could tell you to drop this,” he muttered, his fingers tightening around hers.

“As if I ever would, not when two people need justice and others need my help.” She gave him a small grin and he returned it.

“I wouldn’t expect any less of you.”

There was silence for a moment, and she could feel his eyes on her, taking in her exhaustion and anxiety. It was only a few seconds later that he spoke again, his voice calm enough to alleviate so many of the uncertainties that had been weighing on her shoulders since that morning without him even having to try.

“I can’t stay tonight,” he said softly, “but would you like to go lie down? I won’t leave until you’re asleep, however long it takes.”

Lin sighed tiredly, letting the breath out through her nose in a long, quiet huff before turning to look at Tenzin as he stood, their hands still clasped. She couldn’t deny the offer was sorely tempting, even if she would miss him the several times she was surely to wake during the night as she always did, tossing and turning with stress heavy in her mind. Their full nights together were rare and, though they had not once allowed him to be physically unfaithful to his marriage, the feeling of his arms around her as she slept was one she cherished and no longer had to hold as a mere memory. They never really spoke of it, though; it just happened, as things do, and continued without pause. Neither put much of a stop to it after a while.

She let him pull her gently to her feet, grasp firm around her fingers. “All right.”


	2. Chapter 2

Lin gazed out the large arched window behind her desk, looking down over the bustling courtyard without really seeing it. She hadn’t slept well the night before, waking when Tenzin left and not able to fully fall back to sleep. Her mind was completely divided on what to do, whether to leave the city to search for her mother in order to ply her witness’s tongue – assuming she would help at all, herself – or stay here and work the case without him.

Every foul instance the Dragon Clan had been involved in – murders, explosions, extortions, intimidations, everything the other gangs had dabbled in over the years intensified – had left no evidence strong enough to tie back to them. Truth be told, she didn’t even know who their leader was, who any of the members were, or how many branches there were spread through her city slowly infesting its streets like a disease. 

They always left a tiny curled dragon, its tail feeding into its fanged mouth, painted or carved at the scene when it was their doing and she had come to despise that sign with all her being. Upon a closer examination of the most recent crime scene, the dragon had been found carved under one of the many tables in the bar. Tenzin, in all his spiritual glory, had taken great pains to explain the meaning behind the symbol, for all the help it had given her. That is to say, none. Recreation, eternal cycles, the coiled serpentine Kundalini energy found in every person’s root chakra, everything that was fascinating to him yet brought her no closer to her goal. It’s not like the members had this tattooed on their foreheads like his arrows, for crying out loud.

The citizens of Republic City, while not afraid, where certainly becoming wary and less trusting of one another. There had been no correlation yet between whether benders or non-benders were more likely to join, and so anyone could be part of this new Clan without their neighbor being aware.

And every person living here was looking to Lin to put a stop to this. She was trying her best, regardless of what the papers and radio said against her every day. It was wearing her ragged.

She thought of the coin, tucked into the drawer of her nightstand.

“Chief Beifong?”

Lin turned slowly, her eyes finding Hutou, her personal secretary, standing in the doorway of her office. He was aged, nearly seventy, but his eyes and his wit were sharp and he had no desire to retire any time soon. Hutou had a fierce loyalty to her, she had recognized it since the day he starting simply taking small messages for her, and she admired him greatly for his tenacity.

“This arrived for you, Chief,” he said, coming inside and handing her a thick envelope. “One of the officers downstairs brought it up, said a messenger off the street came in with it.”

She looked at him for a moment, weighing his concern, and slipped her finger under the red wax to pop it open. There was a note inside, folded over once around a thin metal object. She pulled both out, flipping open the note as the aluminum piece warmed in her hand.

_Leave this alone or we take what means most._

That was all the note said, written quickly in a cheap brush – she could tell by the scratchy letters and splotches of ink left behind. She refolded the paper, turning her attention to the bit of metal. Her heart leapt into her throat. It was Tenzin’s official seal, the one he left at city hall to press into the wax dripped on envelopes just like this. She looked at both the parchment and envelope again in a rush, feeling the quality to them, and knew immediately everything in her hands had come from Tenzin’s desk.

“Call Della in here,” she whispered, hardly trusting her voice. She cleared her throat, speaking louder when she added, “and Mako, and whoever is in the detective’s squad room. I want them in here _now_.”

Hutou didn’t even bow before turning and hastening out of her office to gather everyone he could find, the force of her command forcing him into action.

Lin took several deep breaths, her eyes darting back to the window again as she clutched her fist around the seal. The sun was rising toward noon, trying to bring the day to the warm early autumn temperature it had been teasing for the last week, but she was unable to see the beauty in the brilliant blue of the sky. Things were changed suddenly, her way clear, and the weight on her shoulders much heavier than it had been before.

“Chief?”

Mako’s voice brought her around again, and she was silent until he, Della, Jaluu, and Iskar were gathered around her desk. “Where is everyone else?” she asked.

“Working,” Della said, hesitating at the bite to the inquiry. “They told Sergeant Lunzul where they are, it’s all been logged just like you asked us to do.”

Lin nodded dismissively, getting her answer and not caring about the rest. “Fine, fine. All right, I want all of you to listen to me,” she said, looking at each detective in turn and holding their uneasy eyes. “I am leaving. I’ve had this trip planned for _months_ , do you hear what I’m saying? Master Tenzin and I are going to the _South Pole_ ,” she expanded, putting emphasis where it belonged in her story. “We’re going to visit his mother and I do not know when we will return.”

“But Korra didn’t say anything about -”

“Shut up, Mako. Tenzin and I are leaving in two hours.” Lin leaned forward on her desk, arms planted wide, as she stared at them sternly. “Go tell everyone you know about my long, well-planned trip. Everyone. Make sure it spreads, and make sure they know where I am going and that it has been in the works since the spring.”

Jaluu nodded, her face worried. “You’re not really leaving us now, Chief, are you? We – we need you here, don’t we?” A soft murmur of agreement went up through the small group.

Lin’s expression hardened before she could change her mind. “You’ll be fine. Continue with the current safety protocol set in place during my absence. You will report to Sergeant Lunzul until my return, and to Hutou for any personal matters.” She made a shooing motion with one hand, straightening her back to stand again. “Go, get the rumor mill started. Della, you stay.”

The young woman watched her fellow detectives depart, their postures wary, and turned to look at Lin. She gestured for her to sit this time in one of the chairs on the other side of her desk. Della did so silently, waiting for her to speak first. 

“Do you still have any family here?”

The question took her a bit by surprise, and she stuttered a moment at the personal information she was so unused to sharing with her boss before finding an answer. “I – I do. My, um, I’m married. I have a husband and a two-year-old daughter.”

“Della, I need you to stay here and work. But your husband and – spirits, girl, I didn’t realize your child was still so young.” Lin sat in her large chair and lowered her head into her hand, closing her eyes for a beat as she saw the danger unfolding. “As I said, I need you to stay. Tell your husband to take your daughter and leave. If the Clan finds out you’re working this case, they won’t be safe.”

“But I’m sure they’ll be fine -”

“No, Della, they won’t!” Lin’s voice had risen and, at the stricken look on Della’s face, she reined herself back in. “If they’re threatening to come after me, they won’t hesitate to hurt you or your family.”

She was silent for a moment before nodding in acquiescence. “His parents are from the Fire Nation, I can ask him to go there tonight.”

“Call him as soon as you leave this office.” Lin waited for her to nod again and continued. “You, though…while I’m gone I need you to find out who those people are, the man and woman from the bar yesterday morning. No more on the case than that, only their identities.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“And do not let Lang leave this building for any reason. Be sure everyone knows that. Place him under arrest for public drunkenness if you must, but he is not to step foot outside.”

“Yes, Chief.”

Della watched as Lin took a deep breath and released it, but she was finished giving orders and was in no mood to open up with any of her own personal details. She nodded once toward the door. “Thank you, detective. You are dismissed.”

The moment Della left the room, Hutou came back inside. “Shall I call to City Hall for Master Tenzin?”

“No.” Lin shook her head, getting to her feet again restlessly. “I’m going myself. I won’t be back today, or for several more. Please give Lunzul the information I gave the detectives. The rest of the station is to report to him as well. I do apologize for my sudden disappearance, Hutou, I wasn’t intending to fly out the door quite like this.”

“No apology necessary, Chief Beifong,” he told her with a small smile, standing back as she grabbed her heavy coat off the rack by the door and turned out the lamp on her desk. She slipped Tenzin’s seal and the letter into her pocket. “Going out the main doors or through the tunnels in the basement?”

“Basement, I think. Just in case.”

Hutou gave her a low bow when she bid him farewell, crossing to the far side of the office to slide open a nearly hidden door with her bending that exposed a narrow staircase. It led to every floor of the building, an access point to any possible location during an emergency – or a blind exit, such as this. She slid the door closed again and began to descend the stairs to the lowest level. Electric lights dotted the walls every so often and her eyes adjusted quickly, her feet pumping down flight after flight, passing other doors, until she came to the basement and the stairs evened into a long hallway. There were three doors here, one leading to the immense training caverns, one to the holding cells where the worst criminals were kept until transport, and the last led outside. Only an Eartbender could open it, shifting the rock-made gears into a very specific code to coax the lock to unlatch. She and two other ranking officers in the precinct knew this passage even existed, much less the puzzle-like key to open the door. While Hutou was the fourth person to know of the tunnel, he was not a bender and so could not use it at all.

The sun was deceptively bright, and it was chilly when she rounded a corner to keep out of sight in the shadows. Lin wasn’t actually sure if Tenzin was at City Hall, given he had retired many years ago. Raiko relied on him heavily, though, and he came in three days a week or so, working a very light load and sharing an office that used to belong only to him with a junior undersecretary or some such. Lin didn’t really care enough to get to know the young man, only holding onto the information about him that mattered – that he was using half of Tenzin’s office, which would have bothered the shit out of her, if she were in Tenzin’s place. He, however, hadn’t complained a lick.

City Hall rose on her left as she passed into another side street and she looked over both shoulders before crossing out into the open yard in the direction of the main doors. No one took any notice of her. The aide working at the front desk looked up at the metallic clacking of her boots, surprised to see Lin walking toward her. Not giving her a chance to speak, she asked, “Is Master Tenzin in today?”

“Yes, he is. He just arrived about an hour ago. Shall I -”

Lin didn’t wait for her to ask about calling ahead, striding right past the desk and into the depths of the hall to where the offices were. Tenzin’s door was ajar and she pushed it all the way open, catching sight of both him and the little junior undersecretary inside. The younger man, sitting closest to the door, caught side of her first, frowning at her lack of polite introduction before barging inside, but went back to work without a word.

“You and I,” she said to Tenzin, grabbing his arm from behind before he had even fully realized she was there, “are late leaving for our trip.”

“What -”

He cut his surprised question off at the look of warning on her face, stumbling behind her as she pulled him out into the hallway. She reached into her pocket to pull out the seal, smacking it into his hand the moment they stilled against an alcove in the wall. “Missing something?”

“I – where did you get this?” He turned the metal stamp over in his hand, recognizing it right away as his own. His eyebrows came together, not missing the way Lin kept looking over her shoulder and his. “What is going on here? Where did this come from? I used it yesterday, it was locked in my desk when I left yesterday afternoon.”

Lin pursed her lips, tongue sneaking out to wet them as she eyed the piece in agitation. “It was delivered to me this morning. Along with this, the paper of which I believe also came from your desk.” She handed him the note, watching with a heavy heart as his face fell as he read it. “So -” She snatched both the seal and the paper back, shoving them into her pocket again. “You and I are leaving. Come on. Do you have your glider? I don’t want to walk or take the ferry.”

“Yes, I flew this morning. If you wait here -”

“No!” Her face flushed slightly at the urgency to the word, but she grabbed at his wrist anyway, keeping him at her side. “We’re staying together. I’m not letting you out of my sight, not now.”

“All right.” He turned his hand slightly, enough to let hers slide into his palm, though they released the hold quickly. Anyone could walk by and see, after all, and these were not rumors they wanted spreading. “My children, Lin, are they in any danger?”

She swallowed, following now as he led her back to his office to gather his traveling cloak and gilder. “I don’t think so,” she said softly before they reached the doorway. “The threat was clearly addressed to me, saying they would hurt the person I cared about if I didn’t back off. That would be _you_ , not your kids. I mean, not saying I don’t care about them, of course I do, but you – well.”

He paused just outside the door to peer at her silently over his shoulder for a moment, his expression one of tenderness, then went inside to collect his things and give the same ready-made excuse Lin provided.


	3. Chapter 3

“Are you sure we’ll be safe here?” Pema asked, watching Lin closely as she unfolded a map on the kitchen in Air Temple Island’s main house. Her hands were wringing against her skirt. “Why can’t we all go with you?”

Lin glanced up at her, almost ready to brush off the question with a dismissive response until she saw the genuine fear on the younger woman’s face. “I’m as sure about your safety as I am about anything,” she said, her voice firm enough to allay her concern. “The threats were made directly to me and indirectly to Tenzin, not to you and not to any of your children. If I imagined even for a second any of you were in danger, too, none of you would still be here.” 

Pema nodded and took in Lin’s confident posture as she looked back at her map again. “But why Tenzin, then? If they were threatening you?”

The question was an innocent one, truly – Pema had no idea what she and Tenzin had been getting themselves into over the last several years beyond their dinners together every other week – and she forced the rigidity from her shoulders. “Because Tenzin,” she said slowly, choosing her words carefully, “is my oldest friend, it’s not a secret. They likely think targeting him is the easiest way to get to me.”

“But isn’t fleeing the city showing them their tactic worked?”

Lin sighed, laying her hands flat on the map and lowering her head. “I am not _fleeing_ ,” she said, words soft to hide her frustration. With the situation more than with Pema, but still present regardless. “I am following a lead to help close the case and getting your husband out of harm’s way at the same time.”

Pema didn’t respond, though she wasn’t given much of a chance when Tenzin and Jinora came into the kitchen carrying small bundles in their arms. “Here we are,” Tenzin said brightly, setting them down by the bags he and Lin had already packed. “Sleeping rolls. Much better than sleeping on rock, wouldn’t you say?”

“Come look, Tenzin,” Lin said with a gesture to the map. “If we fly out west over the bay toward the ocean, we can turn north to cut around the mountain range here before making our way east toward the swamp.”

He nodded, thinking quickly over her proposal. “A good idea. Very unlikely anyone would see us leaving that way. Oogi can -”

“Absolutely not. We are not taking Oogi.”

“But -”

“ _No_ , Tenzin, he is too recognizable. We’d be seen in a minute.” Her flaring temper instantly eased at the flustered expression on his face, and she reached out to touch his arm for a moment before dropping her hand. “Do you think you could carry us both with all this stuff with your glider? Only over the water and to the other side of the mountains, we can walk most of the way from there. Or I can bend us over the land, if needed.”

“Yes, all right.” He smiled at her, one that reached his eyes and vanished again. 

It sent a small thrill through her, that look, as she realized in that moment he was considering the amount of time he’d get to spend holding her so close without needing an excuse. She blinked and looked away from him quickly. Pema was still watching them as they planned the trip, oblivious to what had just passed, and her presence was making this suddenly uncomfortable. Jinora’s eyes, though, had widened slightly in suspicion at the tiny interaction and Lin pursed her lips as she met the girl’s perceptive gaze across the room.

“Great,” she muttered, folding the map up and packing it into her rucksack. “Are we ready to leave? Do you need anything else?”

“Yes, I’m ready. I only need to get my glider. Would you like to meet me in the courtyard?”

Lin nodded, making to follow him as he left the room. But she paused in the doorway, glancing over her shoulder to see Pema and her oldest daughter standing together and looking so concerned. 

“Pema?”

She brought her head up, startled to hear her name, and waited for Lin to continue. Tenzin stopped in the hall, confused, and stilled his steps as well. “If at any point you feel unsafe, or as though you need more protection here than the White Lotus – or your children – can provide,” she inclined her head politely at Jinora, who smiled widely in return, “you do not have to hesitate to call my station for help. They will send officers immediately and, if you only say the word, an airship to bring you all to a safe location outside the city. You don’t have to be afraid.”

“Thank you, Lin,” Pema whispered. “Be safe.”

“We’ll be back in just a few days,” she said in return, turning away to put an end to the conversation she had started.

“Do you – do you have enough food?”

It was Lin’s turn to be surprised at Pema’s question, and she stopped to look at her again. “I think so.” She opened he bag and peered inside, seeing what she had snatched from her cabinets without thought forty minutes ago. Pema took a step forward and boldly took hold of the bag to see for herself. Lin watched, mildly bemused as she rummaged through.

“Give me twenty minutes,” Pema murmured, her face turned down as she already began to unpack what Lin had shoved in there, “and I’ll have a week’s worth of fresh food prepared for you to take.”

xXx

The air was chilly as Tenzin shifted and pulled currents to keep them afloat over the water. Mountains were coming closer, finally allowing them to leave the wide expanse of the ocean behind. Lin tightened her arms about his shoulders, trying not to move too much as he worked hard to keep them just below the deepening clouds. They couldn’t travel like this the entire way, it would tire him far too much holding them both, but she couldn’t deny appreciating the strength of his body under hers, solid and confident. 

It brought back many memories, and she closed her eyes and lowered her face to the side of his neck to keep them at bay. That was a dangerous road, one neither should be walking. It was suddenly very clear how stupid she had been to allow it to happen again at all.

Only thirty minutes later, Tenzin rounded the edge of the mountain range to bring them to the northern side. The sun was beginning to set on the horizon and, after flying a ways further to find a good place, he turned them downward toward the nearest mountain and a ledge up high near its summit. 

“Sorry,” he said as she released the rope binding them together and untangled herself from around his back. Her bag had gotten twisted and it took a moment, but eventually she was able to get her feet on the ground. 

She just smiled at him, dismissing his apology. “Don’t worry about it. We’ve already made great time, take all the rest you need. Besides,” she added, her grin turning lopsided, “I’m just glad you’re not wearing that ridiculous suit.”

Tenzin laughed and sat heavily on the dusty ground, leaning back against a rock and setting his folded glider close beside him. “Are we still headed the right way?”

“I think so, yes.” Lin pulled the tightly folded map from her rucksack and opened it on the ground, taking a seat as well. She glanced upward to trace to angle of the sun – now just a blob of orange – and then at the range of mountains around them. “Yes,” she said again, eyes scanning the paper. “We’re right here, exactly where we should be by now. Republic City is right over that way -” she struck her thumb out over her shoulder, indicating the other side of the mountains “- and we’ve come around the northern side as we planned.”

She was silent for a few minutes, taking the time to refold her map and repack it safely away. “I hope Ma went back to that horrible cave,” Lin muttered. She nodded her thanks when Tenzin handed her a bun from his bag, holding it in both hands and not taking a bite. “I won’t have the faintest idea where to look if she’s not in the swamp.”

“We can cross that bridge if we come to it,” he said softly, touching her shoulder to bring her gaze up to his. 

She smiled faintly at him, her eyes tired and the exhaustion showing in her face as much as on his. It truly had been a long day; it was hard to imagine just that morning she had been at work as though it were going to be a normal day and yet now here she was, out in the wild far from home. “I know you’re only here because we had to get you out of the city, but I’m glad you’re with me. I’m not sure I’d have taken this little trip alone.”

“I’d have come regardless. Of course I would have,” he insisted at her wary look. “I was going to offer tonight, if you hadn’t already come to a decision. Though that was before your hand was forced.”

“Thank you. Really, Tenzin,” she said clearly, putting her hand on his leg. “I appreciate your company very much, and likely will even more by the time this is over.”

“You are very welcome, Lin.” He smiled at her, truly meaning his words, and she felt herself relaxing the slightest bit through her stress. “Do you think we need to go any further tonight?” he asked, saving her from having to talk any longer on a subject he knew made her uncomfortable. “If not, we can go ahead and settle here.”

“We’ve come far enough for now, I think. Let’s stop for the night.”

Tenzin yawned before she had even finished speaking, and chuckled slightly before saying, “I’m going to unroll the sleeping rolls, then, because I feel like I could go to bed right this moment, I’m so tired.”

She didn’t bother responding as he quickly finished his bun and stood to stretch. She watched as he picked up both rolls and brought them closer to the cliff’s face, away from the ledge, and unrolled one all the way flat, untying the strings to release the blankets to fold open. He paused for a moment then and glanced up at her, unsure. “Would you like to…like to share one?” he asked, attempting to make his question more casual than it really was. “We might be warmer together with one unfolded and the other over us.”

It was an excuse, she knew, for them to continue sleeping with one another the way they had been, but despite what reservations she’d had earlier that day she couldn’t bring herself to find them again. She wanted to feel his arms around her and there was no denying that, none at all. She lowered her head, almost ashamed with herself as she pushed down the guilt bubbling in her stomach and dissipating. 

“We can share,” she murmured.

He nodded, not saying anything, as he finished getting their small camp ready before the quickly fading light vanished. She joined him after forcing the rest of her own bun down – she wasn’t hungry, but she needed to eat – and carefully removed her coat, belt, hauberk, and gauntlets, setting them on the ground by his folded cloak. It was chilly without the metal on her body, growing colder still without the sun, and she got comfortable beside him. His arms reached for her immediately and she rolled to rest her head on the smooth plane between his shoulder and chest as he pulled the blankets tight around them. Warmth descended to stave off the cold autumn wind.

“You left your boots on,” Tenzin laughed softly, nudging her legs with his.

“If we have to get up and run in the middle of the night, I’m not wasting time putting them back on,” she said simply. “Besides, my feet are cold.”

Lin turned her head slightly to gaze up at the sky, now dark and dotted with stars. A bright glow could be seen in the south, reflected off the sparse clouds, and she moved her arm to point it out before placing it back on his chest. “We can still see the spirit portal from here. It’s brighter than the half moon.”

“It’s amazing, isn’t it,” he mused, looking in that direction, “everything that has changed in such a short amount of time.”


	4. Chapter 4

They woke early the next morning, rising with the sun as it came over the horizon. Tenzin packed away their small camp, Lin gathering their things into bags again and checking the map one last time before he flew them to the base of the mountains to find a place to bathe.

The stream was very cold, running from the mountain they had just left, but Lin eagerly pulled her short hair away from her face with two long-toothed wooden combs and began splashing it over her face. Tenzin found a space beside her, watching for a moment as she extended her hands down under the rippling surface again. The sunlight caught on the lacquered edge of the combs, comforting and reminding him of younger years spending mornings together. More than that, they reminded him of home – of the home he’d had with her. Such a small thing, those pieces of wood nestled in her hair, and he reached for water to rinse over his face in an effort to push the nostalgia away.

“It would be nice find somewhere to have a real bath,” she muttered, unaware of his eyes on her and moving away again. “No way am I getting my entire body in here, I’d freeze.”

“We can look for an inn,” Tenzin suggested, actually thinking along the same line she was. Summer may have been shortly passed, but autumn was approaching so quickly the previous season may as well not have happened.

Lin hummed her agreement, scrubbing her face with a bar of soap and passing it over to him. He took it gratefully, trying not to watch any longer as she removed her armor and undershirt down to her bindings to expose her arms and shoulders to wash them as well. She finished quickly, already reaching for the one small towel they had brought to dry herself with and put her clothes back on.

“Perhaps,” she said. He wasn’t sure what she was replying to at first, but she continued after a moment. “As long as we can find an inn with no connection to the city. We really don’t want anyone to know we didn’t go to the South Pole. I’d rather keep living like this for the next week and stink to the Spirit World than risk our safety for a warm bath.”

They set off on foot not long after their foray into the stream. It was turning into a rather nice morning, if they ignored the cold, and Lin pulled her jacket tight around her shoulders over her armor as they found a little-worn path through the thin trees at the base of the mountains. She looked up at the sun every so often to be sure they were still headed in the right direction, and they took a rather leisurely pace for an hour or so, not wanting to push unless they had to.

It was nearing ten o’clock, according to the changing shadows around them, and Lin shifted her bag higher on her shoulders.

“ _Hey_!”

The unfamiliar voice and sudden pattering of several feet behind them brought Lin and Tenzin to a halt, and they looked over their shoulders to see three teenage boys and a girl standing in a tense line across the path. Lin glanced at her friend to see he was as bemused as she was, but Tenzin, for his part, didn’t seem perturbed at having been stopped.

“Yes?” he asked kindly, giving them his full attention.

“You’re going the wrong way,” one of the boys said, standing to the left of the oldest who was clearly the leader. “You’ve come into our territory.”

“The map we have doesn’t show any land boundaries here,” Lin said plainly, “and it is a very good map. So if you’d please, we need to go now.” She turned again to leave, but a rock whizzing by her head stopped her in her tracks. She spun around crossly. “What exactly are you playing at?”

“Give us all your stuff!” the first boy said. 

“Especially your money,” the girl added, slipping into a sloppy bending pose.

Tenzin frowned, catching eyes with Lin. “I think they are trying to rob us,” he said, quite unamused now.

“Are they serious?” she muttered under her breath. A look back at the kids, though, and it was evident they were. Her uniform was covered by her coat and it was obvious they did not understand what the tattoos over Tenzin’s head and exposed hands signified. They were, indeed, being robbed. Or at least, the teenagers _thought_ they were doing the robbing.

“Four against two,” the leader said to bring their attention back. “We’re all four of us benders and we don’t care about beating up geezers like you.”

“Okay, now I’m actually angry,” Lin grumbled to Tenzin, whose frown was so deep by that point wrinkles were showing on his forehead.

“They called us old, Lin. I’m getting rather upset now myself. That was a personal affront, an _insult_!” He looked at the kids again. They had all taken bending stances now – all Earthbenders, by outward appearances, ones who likely didn’t fight much – and were trying very hard not to seem out of sorts that these adults they were trying so hard to threaten were not cowing to their words.

Lin sighed, dropping her bag to the ground. “You know what?” she said to them. “I don’t have any money on me, I rarely carry any. But I’m an Earthbender, too, and I’ve have a rough few days. Go ahead.”

When she turned to face them fully, the girl loosened her form, gaze darting quickly over Lin’s appearance. “How’d you get those scars?” she asked boldly, though she was losing some of her bluster from just moments before at the older woman’s extreme lack of fear.

“Taking care of myself,” she returned, falling into an aggressive stance against them. The earth slid under her feet, ready to work.

The girl backed down right away at the movement, startled, but two of the boys immediately threw large rocks in her direction. Lin hardly moved to break them, letting the rubble fall to the path. Tenzin opened into a stance beside her then, shoving the third rock away with a burst of air. 

Several more rocks flew, and she deflected them all without throwing a single blow in return. Tenzin was hardly breaking a sweat doing the same. It was getting dull, though, this sluggish onslaught, and she started looking for a quick end after only a few more seconds. The leader tried to slowly pull a boulder from the path, but Lin snapped the earth’s will from him and turned the ground to sand. She rapidly expanded the pit to swallow their feet and spun it, bringing them around twice until they fell to their knees.

By the time they crawled out, none of the four raised a hand again, each glaring up at them. “Why are you restoring to thievery?” Tenzin asked – quite patiently considering they had just attacked – his posture already relaxed beside Lin’s rigidity. “I thought your country was at peace again. You have other options.”

“What other options?” the girl snapped, wiping sand from her trousers and pulling off a boot to hold it upside down. 

Another boy did the same, his face furious. “Guess it’s taking a while for peace to get everywhere,” he muttered sarcastically. “Kuvira left our village pretty much destroyed. If we didn’t stick together like this we’d all starve.”

Lin and Tenzin looked at one another and, sighing in slight annoyance as she anticipated what he was going to ask, she held out her bag to him. He took it with a small smile, and she didn’t watch as he opened it and extracted a parcel of food. Not enough to leave themselves hungry, but enough that they would have to track their days away carefully unless they wanted to resort to scavenging. Lin crossed her arms, peering around as Tenzin extended the parcel out.

The leader took it warily, eyeing Tenzin with the expression of a distrustful animal. “What’s this for?”

“So perhaps you will stop stealing from people,” Tenzin said pointedly, “and ask politely instead. Lin and I would have helped you if you had simply requested so.”

“Speak for yourself,” Lin muttered under her breath.

Tenzin glanced at her and away again, lips quirking into a grin. The boy pulled the parcel close and tore the wrappings open, revealing several fresh steamed vegetable buns of different flavors. The others leaned in, reaching to grab one, but he smacked their hands away. “Is there a catch here?” he asked, eyebrows narrowed.

“Just stop accosting people,” Tenzin said, “and find other means to get yourselves fed. Lin?” he turned to her, gesturing down the path to continue on their way.

She gratefully struck out on the path again, not giving the kids another look. Tenzin took a few long strides to catch up with her, handing her bag back so she could heft it onto her shoulders again. “Quite a bit of excitement for the morning, wasn’t it?” he asked, a smile on his face.

“I hope you’re not going to give all our food away to every vagabond and ruffian we meet along the way,” she said sourly.

“Of course not,” Tenzin replied good-naturedly. “There wouldn’t be any left for you if I did that, and you’re enough of a ruffian for any we would meet out here.”

Lin punched his arm hard for his attempt at a joke, but she still couldn’t help her laugh.

xXx

It was nearing dusk when Tenzin began to lag, his steps faltering just a bit though still enough for Lin to notice. She paused, stopping to look over at him. He waved a hand dismissively at her concern, but she narrowed her eyes and stared at him until he shrugged.

“One of those teenagers actually hit me,” he said, not making a fuss of it. She reached for him, and he gently pushed her hands away to continue walking. “I’m fine, it was just a little bump. Their aim was terribly lacking, you saw how bad it was.”

“Tenzin,” Lin scolded, “why didn’t you tell me hours ago! Even bad aim can hurt if it hits the wrong place.” She ignored his feigned obliviousness and grabbed his arm, leading him from the path and toward the rocky edge of mountains again. They hadn’t seen any other people since leaving their attempted robbers much earlier in the day, but she opened a small cave to give them shelter from passers-by and the wind anyway.

“I can’t believe you,” she muttered, shoving him sit on the ground as she snatched his bag and dropped it with hers by the wall. She took his glider, as well, though she was gentle with it as she propped it nearby. “After all the grief you give me for ignoring my own injuries, here you are doing the same fucking thing. Really, Tenzin, what is wrong with you?”

“It’s just a little bruise!” he said, batting her hands away again when she pushed him all the way to the ground to lie on his back.

“A _bruise_!” Lin scoffed derisively. She glared until he stopped fighting her and unbuttoned his cloak, then his robes to push them away layer by layer to reveal his chest to the cold. Goosebumps immediately erupted over his skin. He opened his mouth to complain, but she spoke first. “You baby. Where does it hurt? Oh, wait, there really is a bruise here. Those little brats actually injured you! I should go right back there and -”

“Lin! It’s really not so -”

But his words were interrupted by her fingers prodding the darkening bruise on his side, checking to see just how bad it was. She released the pressure quickly and moved her hands out over the rest of his chest to look for any other possible wounds. It took effort to remain detached from the feeling of his skin under her fingertips. They had worked hard to keep a very firm boundary around touch like this, and here she was plowing it down in a moment of worry for his health. She hadn’t even noticed what she was doing until then, when she felt his muscle so firm under her hands, and she finished her cursory exam and pressed her palms flat to his abdomen as she knelt there, not wanting to move away.

“Do I pass the test, then?” he asked softly through the growing tension.

She didn’t meet his eyes, her gaze set firmly on her hands as she held tightly to her resolve not to act while it tried far too hard to wriggle away from her. “The soreness will be gone by tomorrow night,” she murmured. “It really isn’t so bad.”

His hand came up over his torso to cover hers, though he didn’t move any more than that.

“Tenzin…” She shook her head, not sure how to form the words she wanted to say. She bit her lip and released it again, pushing forward with her frustrating thoughts. “Tenzin, Jinora knows. About what – what’s going on with us,” she clarified when his expression turned confused.

Tenzin sat up, gathering her hands fully into his. “How do you know?” he asked, voice concerned now. “Did she say something to you?”

Lin shook her head again, still not meeting his eyes. “No. I could just tell, right before we left yesterday. She saw the way we – I don’t know, the way we looked at each other when I wasn’t paying attention to myself. I’m sorry.”

He squeezed her hands, threading their fingers together in a kind of uneasiness when he felt her withdrawing from him. “We’re not doing anything wrong, Lin,” he pleaded, trying to justify the last several months without losing her completely. “And Pema -”

“Pema doesn’t have a clue,” Lin said sadly, her voice slowly starting to rise with her discontent. “I’m basically having an affair with her husband – with _you_ – and she doesn’t have the faintest idea. She even still invites me to dinner once a month! What kind of person am I, Tenzin, to let this keep happening?”

“What are you talking about? We are _not_ doing anything inappropriate,” he told her firmly, even if she could feel his faint lie through the earth despite him almost believing it himself. He was saying this for both of them, to keep what they had now from falling apart. “We haven’t had sex, we haven’t even kissed!”

Lin took a deep breath and closed her eyes, focusing on his heartbeat and breathing through the stone under her and letting it calm her nerves. The guilt had come in waves over the years, always easy to push away every time he was near her. Seeing Pema the day before, though, and having to watch Jinora realize something may be amiss – suddenly that guilt wasn’t so easy to ignore.

“Lin. Look at me, Lin.”

She slowly turned her gaze to his, and Tenzin brought their clasped hands to his lips to kiss her knuckles. “I’m not going to lose you,” he said, not a hint of his previous desperation coloring his words. “Not again, not now. Whatever has to change, if nothing changes – I am not losing you again.”

Tears stung her eyes at his sincerity and the intensity of the love pouring from him through the earth. “I don’t want things to stay the same,” she murmured, breaking her hands from his and feeling the jump of his heart until she leaned forward to cup them to his face. “I want them to change. I want _you_ , Tenzin. I can’t care about consequences anymore.”

Tenzin’s arms wrapped up around her back, bringing her closer as she brought her face to his and kissed him soundly on the mouth. The tension released itself with a sigh between them, and he deepened the kiss after only a moment, relishing the sensation of her lips moving eagerly against his. Her armor was chilly against the skin of his chest when she pressed against him, sending a thrill through his body. They had been close numerous times, certainly, but this…they hadn’t shared a kiss in so many years, and he moved one of his hands up to curl around the back of her neck, hair tickling his knuckles.

Lin pulled away the slightest bit, enough to unlatch the sides of her hauberk. Tenzin pressed his lips to her jaw, gently helping her slide the armor away from her body. He let his hands flutter over her stomach, up her shoulders, leaning back to lift the piece up and away. He waited until she released her gauntlets and then carefully took both in his grasp to tug away, setting them on the ground.

She smiled at him, reaching out to draw him back for another fiery kiss. “I am not -” She canted her head to the side when he moved to trail his lips down her neck to her collarbone, only to come back up again to find her scars. “I’m not going to have sex out here in the cold wilderness, but -”

“But I am going to continue kissing you,” Tenzin breathed against her. “I can’t stop.”

His hands slid beneath the waistband of her pants to rest on the back of her hips, bringing a quick intake of breath from her, but he withdrew them again to wrap one arm around her waist as the other hand found purchase at the back of her head. He wasn’t even sure where he wanted to touch, now that she had opened herself to him, and he pulled her close so her entire body was pressed to his, firm and muscled and soft in all the right places. Her legs wrapped around him as she fell into his lap.

“Is this a mistake?” she asked breathlessly, kissing him hard again regardless. He opened his mouth to hers, insistent in its passion, not able to answer just yet when all he could think about was her.

“No,” he finally said, meeting her eyes as they both panted quietly. “How could it be, when I love you so much?” He nestled his face against her flushed neck, slowly starting to calm down through the heat of the moment. “I love you, I do.”

Lin raised her hand to cradle his head to her, shifting slightly to get comfortable as she slipped from his lap to settle just next to him on the ground. “Pretty sure I love you, too.” She chuckled, though, and turned to kiss his temple. “But I still can’t believe you gave away some of our food.”


	5. Chapter 5

Lin woke before him early the next morning, and she closed her eyes again against the bright sun creeping over the earthen floor of her small cave as she nestled closer to Tenzin’s body. He was warm and comfortable, exuding security she didn’t want to lose even by sitting up to stretch. Reality was just beyond, nudging insistently from the corners of her mind, but she wanted to hold onto this for as long as she could, to simply pretend it was just them here in this moment alone without worries or cares.

Tenzin took a deep, sleepy breath under her, his arms tightening unconsciously around her waist, and she opened her eyes despite her wish to ignore the future held in their quickly approaching day. She waited another moment before brushing her hand over his chest to his shoulder with the intention of waking him fully.

“Hey, Airhead,” she whispered, her voice soft and barely reaching his ears.

He smiled faintly, slowly starting to come to, and he raised a lethargic hand to the back of her head to run his fingers through her hair. “Good morning, Lin.”

“Time to get up,” she said. “It’s getting late.”

“And by late, you mean…”

She grinned at the sleepiness slurring his words as she unhurriedly began to untangle her legs from his so she could sit. “A little after seven, I’d guess. Retirement has ruined your internal clock.” She poked his side and he curled away from her, bringing a wider smile to her lips. But it vanished again quickly. “Do you think we’ll reach the swamp today?”

Tenzin sat up beside her and stretched his arms over his head, urging the stupor from his muscles. “I can fly us most of the way, if you want. I’m feeling up to it, the distance shouldn’t be a problem.”

“I’d appreciate that, thank you.” 

“Lin?”

She turned her head to look at him with only a hint of hesitation, easily catching the reservation in his tone. His eyes were downcast, eyebrows drawn, but he met her gaze when he felt it on him. “Yes?” she pushed when he didn’t continue.

“We’re going to have to talk about this – us – now, aren’t we?” he asked softly. 

It was something they had been avoiding for so long, their progressing relationship over the last several years, but after the heat of the moment last night everything they had been ignoring had suddenly ignited to flare in their faces. Her stomach twisted slightly as she remembered, far too vividly, losing him to Pema the first time, and her lips turned down at the corners as an odd mixture of apprehension and some kind fierce need to defend what they had settled through her body. Even still, regardless of what she felt in that moment, regardless of the deep love she had never lost for him, she would let herself be damned before facing that pain again.

“I believe we should,” she finally said in answer to his question. “But I also think…” She paused, taking a breath and letting it out quickly. “I think we should both really consider what we want before jumping head first into anything. All right?”

“All right.”

He couldn’t resist, though, reaching out to gently trace his fingers along her jaw before tugging her closer for a very chaste kiss.

xXx

The hard earth below them soon gave way to thick tree cover. They hadn’t quite reached the swamp yet, but they were getting close. Tenzin had covered at least two days’ worth foot travel by air over the last nine hours even with breaks here and there, and Lin began looking for a good place for them to land so they could continue on the ground. She pointed to a thin patch in the trees, which Tenzin quickly veered toward.

She held tightly to his shoulders as he angled them downward, tilting to avoid branches and vines. It was only another moment before his feet alighted on the earth with hardly a puff of air to stir the damp dirt.

“I don’t think ‘loathing’ is a strong enough word to describe how I feel about this place,” Lin muttered, releasing the rope from her waist and getting to the ground herself after Tenzin closed his glider.

He just chuckled, glancing around. They were certainly on the outskirts of the large swampland, with the thicker threes and underbrush closing to their sides. No use flying from here, the rest of the way would definitely have to be on foot. Lin smacked some low-hanging fronds from what could almost have been a path, peering gloomily ahead.

“I bet Ma already knows we’re here,” she grumbled unhappily, taking a step over a large root to start walking. Tenzin followed. “And yet she’s going to make me search her out, just watch. Crazy old bat.”

She stopped suddenly, Tenzin almost plowing into her back before noticing she wasn’t continuing forward, and planted her foot firmly to the ground to send out seismic waves through the earth. They traveled far, though not picking up anything aside from plants and animals, as well as a small camp of people far in the distance. Toph wouldn’t be there. She started moving again.

It was difficult not to grow frustrated the further they traveled. There was a part of her – a rather large part, if she were honest – that wished she had never left the city. She could be there now, she knew, working on the case. She might even have cracked it open, if she had stayed. But then, she had to remind herself, she had left to remove Tenzin from danger, not really to find her mother. Toph may be able to help, yes, and perhaps the threat to Tenzin was a small excuse to come this way, but she would have done anything to keep him safe. 

Every so often she would stop to sense the earth, looking hard through her element for her mother. Tenzin didn’t stop her or ask to rest, and the sun had already been set for an hour when she finally felt a single human heartbeat.

Lin led the way through muddy water and between large, mossy trees until the faint glow of a cooking fire – and the savory scent food that came with it – could be seen through the thick leaves and underbrush around them. A rather large cave opened in the face of a huge rock nestled in a large grove of tall, heavily-fronded trees and bushes.

An old lady was standing in the entrance, backlit by the fire.

“It sure took you long enough,” she said snappily, already turning around to go back in out of the damp chill. “I made tea two hours ago, it’s cold and you’re going to drink it anyway.”

“Nice to see you, too, Mom,” Lin muttered, frowning deeply as she broke free of the remaining vines and entered the cave behind her. Tenzin was close on her heels.

“You brought Twinkle Toes Junior!” Toph cried in delight with a wide smile opening across her face. “Look at that,” she said with a hearty laugh. “You two fucked again. I knew you would. Katara owes me fifty yuan.”

Tenzin had started to say hello to her initial greeting, but the words choked in his mouth when she continued and his face flamed. Lin, though, glared at her even though she couldn’t see it. “Your feet must be getting old, Ma, we’ve done nothing of the sort,” she said dryly, the words still rather off-put. Tenzin, at least, could see the faint red staining her cheeks, as well, before she calmed herself.

Toph pretended to scowl. “No?” she asked, cocking her head to the side. “Well, you’ve done something. Hey,” she hastened to add before either could speak, “I don’t judge – and I sure as fuck don’t care. Do whatever you want, you both have enough of that stupid love thing goin’ on to fill this whole spirit-infested swamp. Aang always said that’s all anyone needed, didn’t he?”

Lin rolled her eyes to the rocky ceiling, taking another deep breath as she let go of the argument building on her tongue. “That was a nice welcome. Whatever happened to a simple ‘hello’?” 

Her mother guffawed, coming forward to punch Lin in the arm and denting her armor through her coat. “I missed you, too, kid. So, what are you doing here? Just stopping by to…say _hello_?” She laughed again at her own joke.

“Well, actually, I was hoping you would be able to help me identify something.” Lin dropped her bag to the ground and, glancing quickly up at Tenzin – who still had not spoken, though his mouth was somewhat agape at the conversation he’d just heard – opened it to dig down into one of the inside pouches to withdraw the bronze coin. She handed it to Toph, who had already extended her hand for whatever was going to be given.

“Right down to business, that’s my girl.” She was still as she took only a second to run her fingers over the metal. “Oh, this. I made tons of these things.”

Her answer was lacking, and certainly not what Lin was expecting for how exceedingly unhelpful it was. She frowned. “This one was given to me by a man named Lang during the course of an investigation. Do you remember him?”

“Lang…” She tried the name out loud, thinking silently for a moment before speaking. “Yeah, I remember him. He was an informant for me, way back when. He ran some lousy restaurant a crime boss frequented, and he fed me information on what was going on behind closed doors before the crimes could take place. I gave him this coin to show my officers, in case he was ever arrested by accident. Got him out of a few tight spots. His tips helped us close that ring before it ever really got claws in the city. Is he all right?”

Lin and Tenzin looked at one another again, and he let Lin speak. “He witnessed a double murder earlier this week. He won’t talk.”

“And,” Toph continued for her, “he gave you this coin because he doesn’t feel safe.”

“Yes.”

“You’re not telling me everything. You could have gotten through to him without coming here.” Her mother turned sightless eyes in her direction, pinning her to her spot on the ground and feeling her thudding heart through the earth. Lin wasn’t used to being so exposed anymore and she just swallowed. “Not only did you come all the way out here for no apparent reason, you brought _Tenzin_ when you just as easily could have come alone. One of you is in trouble.”

Lin’s expression closed quickly and the scowl that had been pulling at it vanished. She only needed one steadying breath to get herself fully under control, and she saw the moment it worked when her mother’s lips pursed. “It doesn’t matter,” she said stiffly. “We’re fine.”

“ _Damn_ , you’ve turned into a good liar. You were always better at getting away with shit than Su because of that, had it nailed by the time you were fourteen. So.” Toph turned swiftly on her heel to face the still-silent Tenzin, whose eyes widened in surprise. “I’ll ask you, instead. _You_ don’t know how to lie, I can feel you sweating already. What the bloody spirits is going on here?”

“I, well -” He tried to find Lin’s eyes through the flickering firelight, but she wasn’t looking anywhere near him. “Just as Lin said,” he flustered after another moment, “she wanted to get your opinion on the coin.”

“Wrong,” Toph growled. “Try again.”

“Ma, stop. If you really want to know – the murders where gang-affiliated and, when I wouldn’t turn the case closed, they sent me a message threatening Tenzin.” Lin sighed, leaning her head back against the cool stone wall and letting her gaze slide over to the two of them. “I figured it would be best to get him out of the city for a few days. Lang gave me the coin the day before, I decided to kill two birds with one stone.”

Toph grinned in triumph, plopping herself down near the fire. “Give ‘im jasmine tea.”

“What?” Lin was too tired to be angry by then, and she just shook her head slowly in vague exasperation. “Give who jasmine tea?”

“Lang,” she clarified with a wider, toothy smile. “Make sure to get the water too hot and scald the leaves, you know, like I used to do. He’ll tell you anything, once he has that tea. Will know I told you how to ‘make’ it.” She made the air quotes around the word with knobby fingers, laughing as she did. “I hate jasmine tea.”

“Are you serious?” Lin asked irritably. “I came all the way out here for you to tell me how to scald tea for this man?”

“You sure did! But then, you actually did it for baldy here, not for anyone else. Don’t kid yourself, badgermole.” Her laugh this time was more of a chuckle, but her smile was just as wide. “It’s so sweet I could vomit.”

Abruptly, Lin turned her stormy face to find Tenzin still hovering uncertainly in the entrance. “We can go now.”

“Tell ‘er to stay,” Toph interrupted with a dismissive wave of her hand in his direction. “It’s going to be cold out there tonight, frost has already started creeping in. I’ve actually been thinking of going somewhere warmer myself in the next few weeks, maybe to the Fire Nation to see Zuko. You got here just in time.” Lin was silent, though that was all that was needed to count as acceptance. “Pull up a rock or whatever you want. Just no _touching_ , if you two can manage it; I don’t need to know what my daughter and her lover do at night.”


	6. Chapter 6

_“You had better be prepared to either kill or die for that man.”_

Toph had said several things before she and Tenzin left, but those words were the ones that continued to ring through Lin’s head. She had also told her very pointedly not to die, poking her hard in the chest as she did so. Lin certainly had no intention of doing either of those things, but she hadn’t bothered attempting to explain herself to her mother. Of all the pointless endeavors she had undertaken over the years, she had long since put “defending her actions to Ma” at the top of that list.

“I still can’t believe our mothers,” Tenzin said, bringing her out of her thoughts. They had stopped for a late dinner and were leaning against the trunk of a large tree as they watched the sun make its lazy way toward the horizon, only a few hours from the border of Republic City.

Lin chuckled airily, taking a swig of cool water from the metal canteen shared between them. “Let me amend that for you – you can’t believe _my_ mother. She probably cajoled yours into the whole thing.” 

He just shook his head distractedly as he gazed off toward the mountains, the physical landmark surrounding their home. “Making a bet whether we would – well, it’s just ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous.” He reached out to pick up the cracker he had been eating, setting it right back down again. “I’m going to call Mother the moment I get home and talk to her about just what the meaning of all this is.”

“Obviously she thought you -” _Were making a mistake_ , is what she was about to say, but she cut the words off quickly before they could come out. Tenzin turned his head to look at her in mild confusion, wondering whether she was going to continue, and she blithely added, “Thought you had mixed feelings. Besides, she was probably betting against my mom.”

“I suppose,” he replied, not noticing her cover.

“Let’s finish up here and get going. If we don’t stop again, we might actually make it back by midnight.”

xXx

Lin’s timing was impeccable, and Tenzin rounded them over the station at her request just after eleven thirty. They decided not to follow around the mountains the way they had left days earlier, instead returning by flying the shortest path to shave as much time as possible. It worked marvelously, and they landed in the courtyard off to the side of the building, lights from windows overhead dim and showing just how late it was. She stepped away from him but didn’t make any immediate movement to leave, instead looking around them for anything out of place.

“Are you going to stay here tonight?” Tenzin asked softly, bringing her attention back to him.

“I don’t know,” she answered honestly. “I haven’t decided yet.”

It was a response to both the immediate question and to the one unasked – the larger question about their quickly changing relationship – and she met his eyes through the not-quite-black darkness. “Well,” he said, not shying away from her, “would it be all right with you if I stayed? With you, wherever you decide?”

Lin was quiet for a moment, her eyes flicking over his shoulder to focus on the large metal and wooden doors leading inside her personal fortress before looking back at him. His face was calm and so filled with love, and she gave him a small smile. “Yes, it is all right with me.”

He reached out to grasp her hand, leaving it lowered between them in the shadows. “Thank you.”

“We still need to talk,” she told him firmly, “but we can…go home for now, get some decent sleep. If I’m this tired, I can only imagine how exhausted you must be. Let me just run inside to get some stuff to catch up on and check the logs, make sure everything is all right here. I’ll talk to Lang first thing in the morning. Want to come with me or stay out here and meditate?”

The bit about meditating was a joke and he grinned at her. “I’ll wait for you,” he said anyway. The breeze, while very chilly, felt comforting as it swept in from the sea and he wanted to stay here with it for the few minutes it would take her to gather her things together. She nodded silently in understanding, turning to go on into the warm, lit building, bag slung over her shoulder. He watched until she disappeared, and then cast his gaze out over the empty courtyard. 

“Excuse me?”

The voice came from the far side of the square near the alley, and he looked in that direction to see a young man walking quickly across the distance toward him. “Yes?” Tenzin asked, somewhat wary now that they were back in the city. He didn’t appear dangerous – young and clean-shaven, though seeming somewhat lost.

“Could you point me toward Upper Common Street, please?” he asked as he neared.

xXx

Lin turned on the electric lamp on her desk, not bothering with the gas lamps on the wall when all she wanted was to gather specific files and information before leaving again. Della wasn’t in – the well-kept log said she had left for the night a few hours ago – and she glanced through the sheaves of paper stacked neatly waiting for her. Several sealed scrolls were set off to the side, though she ignored those to look at later.

A loud crash and the resounding smack of wood against something solid outside caught her attention through the silence. She hastened around her desk and looked out the window, squinting through the darkness down to the courtyard. A flurry of red and yellow pulled her eyes to the entrance of the alley on the far left, where she only just caught sight of five men bodily shoving a cloth over Tenzin’s face and dragging him away the moment he went slack.

“Tenzin!” she cried, numbing fear pulsing through her.

She shoved her window open quickly, leaping up onto the ledge and jumping outside without thinking. “Tenzin! Stop, _stop_!” Two of the men looked up, almost startled to see her diving out of her office down the side of the building with her cables. The largest of the five hefted the unconscious Tenzin over his shoulder and all of them took off at a fast run, his glider clattering to the paving stones from his limp hand.

“Tenzin!” Her voice was hoarse with the strength of her shout, and she sprinted after them the moment her feet touched the ground, rounding the corner of the alley just behind them in time to hear a Satomobile screeching away from the other end. “Tenzin! Tenzin, no!”

Her heart was beating fast enough to burst as she stood there alone, staring in shock down the empty alley. _They got him_ , was the only agonizing thought racing through her mind.

She didn’t know where they were going, she hadn’t yet discovered where their main headquarters was located or even who the clan’s leader was. She had no idea where to start looking. So, quite simply, she couldn’t let them get to where they were headed. Very quickly, she shot a wire to one of the thick cables above, pulling herself up onto the rooftops. Her feet landed on the slanted roof of the building beside the precinct and she climbed to the top and continued running, looking to the streets below for any glimpse of the car. She cabled herself from roof to roof, boots pounding the gold and orange clay tiles as she searched.

Suddenly she saw the car hurdling down a side street headed toward Upper Common Street, jerking from side to side as the driver was pushed by the man in the passenger seat. She recognized the large man who had grabbed Tenzin, and saw a large covered bundle in the laps of the three in the back.

Lin sped her pace to lessen the distance between them tremendously before tugging hard on the cobblestones under the vehicle, tossing it over on its side with a metallic crunch. Tenzin tumbled lifelessly from under the cloth as the men scrambled to their feet from the crashed car.

She jumped down from the rooftop, immediately falling into a fighting stance. One of the broken cobbles came flying through the air toward her, and she changed its path to soar back to the man who threw it. Before she could take in who was where, a searing blaze of fire came through the darkness and she dodged quickly, rolling forward into the street and pulling up a wall of earth at the same time. The flame hit the barrier, heating it and fading away as the attacker realized she was already gone. She broke it open, bringing two large pieces around her to shove forward toward the Firebender. The attack was unexpected enough that, though he tied to run, one of the rocks hit him hard in the shoulder and brought him to the ground, unconscious.

Several shards of stone came pummeling in her direction, and she raised another wall to prevent them from hitting her. One of the Earthbenders broke her wall, sending it backward forcefully until she shoved it down and leapt over the remnants. She lashed out with a cable, catching the closest man and using his own momentum to toss him far from the tussle, where he did not move. Three left.

They descended before she could assess their abilities. One of the remaining was a Waterbender, and he attacked for the first time with a fierce ice lance, missing her by a hair as she spun away. They closed in, trying to keep her space tight, and she pulled a surge up on the earth to knock them back. More cobbles were displaced and she grabbed several and threw them out in a fan. The men knocked most of them away, though a few hit arms and torsos enough to make them stumble.

The Waterbender and two Earthbenders struck out at the same time, reforming their ring around her and funneling several large rocks into a forceful stream of water pulled up from the gutter. It hit her hard and she fell backward onto her side, rolling quickly to miss the heavy rock coming down to smash the ground where her head had been. She ended beside the second Earthbender and, extending her knife, she didn’t think before stabbing him cleanly through the left leg and again in the right shoulder. He cried out in pain and she pushed him away.

One Earthbender and the Waterbender left now.

The three of them stood there for a split second eyeing one another and panting. Lin struck first, swinging her cable out to snag the Waterbender’s arm. He jerked back from her, grabbing hold of the water again and turning it to ice with the intention of cutting the metal, but Lin pulled him toward her quickly and tightened the cord so swiftly it broke his arm. He hunched forward, but his expression turned deadly and, still grasping the water, he brought the ice around his unbroken arm to shove up with his fist toward the exposed skin of her neck. She dodged at the last moment, the ice scraping the armor around her throat and cutting her skin enough to draw blood, as she used her knife to jab into his stomach the second he was close enough. He fell with a choking gasp as his blood gushed out slickly over her armor, the only one likely to die. She didn’t care.

The last man began to run, his footsteps loud through the stiff silence that fell so suddenly. 

Lin let him go and dashed to Tenzin’s side, reaching out for him before she had even knelt to the ground. 

“Tenzin,” she murmured urgently, bloody hands searching for his pulse. “Tenzin, open your eyes, look at me. Tenzin!” His heart was thudding gently under her fingers, and she lowered her head to hold her cheek over his open mouth, feeling for his breath to puff against her skin. Tears burned her eyes and she blinked them away quickly. He was alive. He didn’t even appear to be badly injured, aside from clearly being unconscious.

After pausing for just a moment to gather herself, Lin stood again to find a nearby emergency line to phone the station for help.


	7. Chapter 7

Police and healers arrived quickly. Tenzin was rushed to the hospital and, though Lin was desperate to follow, she remained at the scene to oversee the investigation. The four injured men – three, truly; she had felt one of them die already even if the healers on site were not saying so – followed to the hospital for care after being placed under immediate arrest.

The street was a mess. The cobbles and paving stones were in complete ruin and the car, which she had thrown at the start, had actually rolled during the fight to hit a building and break the shop’s window. She hadn’t heard the shatter, but then she had been far too distracted to notice. Blood was spattered across the ground, some of it hers though most having spilled from the men she had been defending Tenzin against. Thankfully none was his.

“Chief?”

Lin turned her head to see Della coming tentatively to her side, a concerned expression on her face. “Are you all right?” she asked. “There are still some healers here, I can get one for you. I mean, your neck is bleeding, and your cheek, too -”

“I’m fine,” Lin interrupted softly, watching as two Metalbenders pulled the Satomobile upright. It was a lie, but she wasn’t going to say so. Her body ached terribly, growing worse by the minute, and she could feel bruises forming under her armor. But Tenzin – Tenzin was safe. He was all right, and that was the only thing that mattered to her. Overwhelming love for him flared through her for a strong second before exhaustion pushed all other emotion out of her mind.

She walked away to get a closer look at the automobile, leaving Della to take several quick steps to catch up. It was crushed and hardly appeared anything near its former glory, but she peered inside in the hopes any nooks and crannies hadn’t been too badly destroyed. The glove box had popped open and she used a gesture with her bending to pull the door all the way open. It was empty, though, as was the rest of the car.

“Search everything,” she said. “Pull it apart piece by piece. I want you to note every little thing you find, however small or insignificant it may seem.”

Two hours of photographs, notations, and speaking with officers later, Lin finally approved the final cleanup of the scene. The Satomobile and all its parts were removed, a paver came in to begin repairing the road, a cleaner came to wash away the blood, and the shopkeeper showed up to assess the damage to his store just as a stonemason responded to fix that damage. The street would be good as new by sunrise, as though this never happened.

xXx

Lin leaned back in the chair behind her desk, closing her eyes tightly and attempting to bring herself back together. It was nearing eight o’clock in the morning. She hadn’t slept, but she didn’t exactly feel as though she wanted to. Before returning to the precinct, she had stopped by the hospital to check on Tenzin. He had still been unconscious, but his healer said he was fine and would wake in another few hours.

The cloth the men had covered over his face had also been found and, according to the healer’s analysis when he had been brought in and from what was found on that fabric, she told Lin it looked to be a very concentrated herbal concoction used to knock a person cold that had likely come from a much larger batch, created over a long period of time. Inhaling as much as he did, Tenzin had simply passed out. All the men needed to do was hold him still long enough – really, only a few seconds – for it to work.

A bit more subtle than the Equalists’ gloves and just as dangerous. It infuriated her.

“Chief?”

She opened her eyes and lowered her head to see Hutou bowing her in doorway, a tray with two teacups filled with steaming tea held in his hands. “Lang has been brought into the meeting room for you, ma’am.”

Lin got to her feet, coming around her desk to take the tray. One cup was filled with her own black tea, the other with a fine fragrant jasmine, overly dark for a white tea and scaled to her – and her mother’s – direction. She took the brass coin with her mother’s marking from her desktop and set it by her cup. “Thank you, Hutou. Please direct Della to wait for me to call on her.”

The precinct was just starting to buzz with activity. Many officers and detectives paused what they were doing as she passed, most with concerned or confused expressions, but she didn’t pay them any mind as she walked toward the room Della had set Lang up in. She would make an announcement to all of them as a whole later in the day, explaining what had happened overnight once she had more information herself. For now she had one goal – speak to this man who had kept his tongue tied.

She balanced the tray on the palm of one hand and let herself inside. This room was not an interrogation cell by any means, instead set up with comfortable chairs and an elegant wooden table. Detectives met with families and loved ones in here, giving both bad news and good.

Lang was sitting in one of the chairs, arms resting on his knees as he hunched over himself. He glanced up when the door opened and watched warily as Lin set the tray on the table, gesturing kindly for him to join her when she sat. Hesitating for only a moment, he left his current chair for one closer to her and she handed him the jasmine tea before taking her own black tea into her hands.

She was silent as he brought the cup to his lips, watching with a cool gaze as he took a sip. His gaze shot up to hers the moment the liquid met his tongue.

“Do you know who I am, Mister Lang?” she asked innocently, no acidity to the question. It was the first time they had spoken face to face, and the first time he had met her at all. He nodded slowly, saying her name out loud. “She – the woman who used to make this tea for you – is not coming back to the city. But I am here _now_ , and I will protect you the same way she did. Do you understand?” He nodded again and she narrowed her eyebrows slightly. “Will you trust me the way you trust her?”

“Yes.”

She picked up the coin he had given to her only a few days ago, looking at it one last time, and handed it back to him. His aged hands closed around it gratefully. “Will you tell me why you were in the bar that morning?”

Lang stared up at her, his dark brown eyes showing a hint of fear, but he took a deep breath and set his cup on the table. “I live upstairs,” he said. “The owner – he doesn’t charge me rent. A kind man, he is. Fen Tao is his name. Been friends for thirty years. I was – I was downstairs the night before – I have a problem, you see – with drink -”

“It’s all right, Mister Lang.” Lin put her hand on his wrist when she noticed him begin to falter, his face falling with despair. “Tell me whatever you can.”

“I was drinking,” he continued, gaze downcast. “The bar was closed, it was Fen Tao’s birthday, it was only us and his wife, the three of us celebrating. Sometime late, after one in the morning, I think – there was banging on the door. A ramming sound, angry-like. Fen Tao, he told me to go get some more whiskey. I was drunk, but I could tell he was…was upset about something. His wife went with him to the door, I don’t think she knew what was going on.

“There was shouting – a lot of shouting.” He paused and lowered his head into his hands. “I don’t remember much more than that,” he told her sadly, “I must have passed out at some point. At least, I knew not to move while – while _that_ was going on. Maybe the fear…”

“How do you know it was the Dragon Clan?” Lin asked.

“Fen Tao, he was saying something about not helping them, about how they were ruining the city and refusing to take back his word. And then – and then the most horrible sound – I can’t – that was when I -” He stopped speaking abruptly and this time Lin did not ask another question.

“I’m going to keep you here,” she said instead, “where you’ll be safe until this is over.”

“Thank you,” he murmured, unable to look up again.

Lin rose from the table, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder before leaving the room. Della was waiting for her in the hall and Lin beckoned for her to join her back in her office. The detective pushed away from the wall and took several steps to keep up with her pace. Lin didn’t speak until she was sitting behind her desk, and even then she took a deep breath to steady herself as she continued to absorb everything she had just been told.

It was only another second, though, before she turned her focus to Della. “Were you able to get full identifications on both the victims?” she asked.

Della sat in the chair on the other side of her desk and held out the file she’d been carrying. “Yes,” she said. “The man was Fen Tao, the owner. He lived in the building with his wife, Puya, the woman who was killed. They’ve lived in Republic City for thirty-four years, before that in Ba Sing Se. Not wealthy, but not broke either. No connection to organized crime that I could find, but Puya does have a brother who was arrested in Omashu and sent to Ba Sing Se to serve his prison sentence.”

“What was he arrested for?” Lin flipped through the several sheaves of paper.

“Murder, was the biggest charge,” Della answered, screwing her face up in disgust, “but he was also charged with attempting to traffic illegal substances. It didn’t work out well for him, he was caught before anything was even started.”

Lin nodded, finding the page with the criminal record and glancing through it. She pulled the form out and set it on top of the others, figuring it might be important to look at again with a fresh eye. “Wonderful work, Della, thank you.”

“Oh, and Chief?”

She looked up from the file, tired eyes finding Della’s anxious ones. “Those two men, who we arrested last night? They were released from the hospital, Mako, Jaluu, and a few others brought them into custody while you were speaking with Lang. They’re refusing to talk to us, but they’re in the cells downstairs.”

“Two?” Lin repeated, almost thinking for a moment she had misheard. “There were three men.” 

“Yes, ma’am – two. The other died, also.”

Two survived to be brought in. Which meant Lin had taken the lives the other two, without even realizing what she was doing. Her gaze unfocused off Della’s face, her body going numb.

xXx

The city’s morgue was in the basement of the hospital, a long, chilly floor with icy walls and cold water pumped through the piping to keep the temperature down. Several large rooms branched off the main brightly lit hallway but Lin didn’t stop at any of these as she made her way to the examination room at the far end. Master Yol had called her just minutes before, finally letting her know she could come view the bodies of the two men she had killed what seemed like a lifetime ago – even if it hadn’t yet been a full twelve hours since the fight in the street.

Yol poked her head out into the hall, her pale face pulled into a no-nonsense expression that actually gave Lin a small bit of comfort. She liked this woman, she took her job seriously and didn’t give a bear dog’s ass what people thought of her living.

“I thought that was you, Chief Beifong,” she said, her deep voice hitting the ice around them and falling flat. “Come on, I still have them out.”

Lin followed her into the cavernous room she had come from, immediately seeing two men laid out on metal tables near the wall. She recognized the Waterbender, whom she had felt die as she tended to Tenzin, but she was startled to see a young Earthbender beside him – not the man she had stabbed, but the one she had thrown. “Do you -” The words caught in her throat and she swallowed quickly before continuing. “Do you know who they are? Has anyone claimed kin?”

Yol nodded. “This young man, here,” she pointed to the Earthbender, “he has a sister, she’s coming to see him this afternoon but we’re not releasing his body yet. His name is Peiji, she says. The other – we don’t know, still unclaimed and unnamed. There is something you might find interesting, though, Chief.”

She beckoned Lin to the end of the tables, toward the men’s feet, and reached for the big toe on Peiji’s right foot. “See this?” She pointed to a small red dot imprinted on the skin along the side of the toe. “I thought it was a blister or perhaps a freckle at first, but both have one. Well, actually, unnamed over there has five to this boy’s one.”

Lin studied the dot on the Earthbender’s foot for several seconds and moved to take the other man’s right foot into her hand, examining the same toe. Five tiny dots formed a close line away from the nail. “This looks like a tattoo,” she murmured, thinking out loud.

“My opinion, as well,” Yol said simply. “The red ink was probably made from clay, or perhaps some kind of herb. It’s a very vibrant color, but I still almost missed it.”

“Thank you, Master Yol,” Lin said softly, already making her way to the door. 

She paused, though, and turned back to look at the two men again, both dead by her own hands. The unknown Waterbender was clearly in his forties, toughened and a seasoned fighter. Peiji, the Earthbender – he couldn’t have been a day over twenty, still a child somehow caught up in a mess far over his head and now unable to right his mistakes. He had fallen so easily against her and she hadn’t stopped for a second in her rage to protect Tenzin to consider how badly she may have hurt him.

“How did he die?” she asked suddenly. 

Yol glanced over at her and, noticing the direction of her gaze, frowned slightly. “The angle of his plummet broke his neck. He didn’t suffer, Chief, if that’s what you’re wondering. His death was abrupt on impact.”

It hadn’t been, and the information did not calm the illness rising in her stomach.


	8. Chapter 8

“I’m at the end of my rope here, Tenzin,” Lin said sourly, pacing across his bedroom. “What if they win? What if the Dragon Clan is the one that beats me?”

She had just finished filling him in on the progress of the case, the late afternoon sun thrown through the window and across the floor. The deaths were heavy on her mind, making her feel sullied and furious with herself, and even his calm acceptance of the event was doing little to help when it was usually all she needed. She studied the wooden panels, not looking at him even as his eyes followed her anxious movements.

“Lin.” 

The surety of her name as he said it brought her around, and he held out his hand to beckon her closer. She came to sit rigidly on the side of the bed next to him and he grasped her fingers in his. “They are not going to beat you,” he told her firmly. “They are not going to win anything. Have you slept since yesterday? You look exhausted.”

She took a deep breath and shook her head. “There was too much going on. Paperwork with a death like that – well. And with all the rest, speaking with Lang and Master Yol, and trying to track down this Puya’s brother…trying to deal with the two attackers we do have. Tenzin, I…”

Tenzin stared at her, as overwhelmed as she was. He had spent several hours in the hospital the night before, released to Pema’s care when the healers were sure whatever herbal inhalant the men had drugged him with had done no more than knock him unconscious. He was extraordinarily achy today and was under strict orders to stay in bed until tomorrow – which, unlike Lin, he was willing to do. He wished she would, for her own sake.

“You did it all for me,” he whispered, the weight of that still awe-worthy on his shoulders.

She looked at him and away, eyes focused on a random spot on the blanket covering his legs. “Of course I did. They would have killed you if I hadn’t, what other option was there?”

He could imagine the fury fueling her hours before, a feeling he had felt on so few occasions and only for people he truly loved. He hadn’t had a chance to be afraid for his life, but he knew he had been very close to losing everything if she hadn’t acted so quickly to save him. “Thank you for coming to my rescue.”

“Don’t mention it, Airhead.” She put her hand to his cheek, only to withdraw it again a moment later. “I’m not going to lose you, either, you great idiot. Just do me a favor and never scare me like that again, will you?”

He grinned, opening his mouth to respond, when Pema came into the room holding a tray of food. “Here, sweetheart! I made lunch.”

Lin stood quickly from the bed, making room for Pema to take her place and set the tray up on the bedside table. Tenzin watched her, but she shook her head and took a step back. “I’m going to have the air patrols include the island in their hourly circuits,” she said, snapping into business. “I’ll also post officers on the docks and two on the grounds, just in case.”

Pema nodded enthusiastically, though Tenzin frowned. “Do you really think that’s necessary?”

“Yes,” his wife said firmly, handing him a cup of tea, “it is absolutely necessary. Don’t argue with Lin, she knows what she’s doing.” She tuned to Lin then, smiling at her widely. “Thank you so much, Chief, truly, for everything you did last night. I don’t want to think about what would have happened if you hadn’t been there.”

_I was there_ , she thought grimly, _because Tenzin was about to come home with me._ But she grinned thinly anyway, accepting her praise with a clenched jaw. “You’re welcome. I should -”

“Would you like any tea, or perhaps some lunch? There’s plenty, the children won’t notice if a little more disappears.”

Lin shook her head, looking at Pema’s happy, innocent face. She could feel Tenzin’s eyes on her, and she met his gaze over his wife’s shoulder for a brief moment before looking at her again. “No, but I appreciate the offer. I really should get back to work. Please call if you need anything, all right?”

“I’ll just walk you out, then.”

“No, please, stay with Tenzin.” Lin held up a hand to prevent her from rising from the bed and backed toward the door. “I can find my own way out.”

She could feel Tenzin watching her until she disappeared around the corner.

xXx

Lin rolled over in bed, staring at the far wall slatted with the shadows and attempting to ignore her aching body. She had been trying to sleep for hours, and according to the clock ticking away on her bedside table it was nearing three o’clock in the morning. She knew she would be beyond exhausted if she didn’t fall asleep soon, especially after not getting any the night before, but all she could see when she closed her eyes was blood and Tenzin being dragged away from her.

The horror of that was something she was having a difficult time releasing, even though he was quite safe in his own bed just miles away. Perhaps it was the fact that it had happened at all, meaning it could possibly happen again. She couldn’t well chain him to the temple, he would be leaving again sometime – and making himself a target once more. If she hadn’t found him, if she hadn’t saved him from those men…

She took a deep breath and tried to force the thought of it from her mind. The Dragon Clan tortured people for information they wanted. But Tenzin was safe. He was safe and far from them now. The weight of the two lives she had taken was heavy over her shoulders, but at least _Tenzin was safe._

A knock on her front door startled her, and her heart leapt into her throat for a moment as she sat up. The knock came again. She swung her feet from the bed, not bothering to slide them into the slippers there, and pulled her robe on. She beckoned for a gauntlet as she passed, attaching it with the blade over her arm on the way to the door. Pausing for a second, she peered out the view.

Tenzin was standing on her stoop, wrapped in a nondescript brown cloak with the hood up and his head down.

Lin pulled the door open immediately, surprised. “What are you doing here?” she asked, too pleased to see him to be angry. She removed the gauntlet again and placed it on the small table in the entryway.

“Tending to an emergency with the President,” he said, smiling almost bashfully. He came inside when she backed away to give him admission and closed the door. “I wanted to make sure you were all right. I haven’t really had a chance to truly speak with you about – about what happened. Seeing you this afternoon, it wasn’t enough. I couldn’t stop thinking about you.”

Unbidden, tears welled in her eyes as she stared up at him. Exhaustion was creeping in and making it very difficult to control herself, though if she were honest, she had been overwhelmed to her breaking point since seeing him forcefully taken from her. All of this was quickly becoming too much. Tenzin opened his arms without question, drawing her to his chest to hold her tightly. 

“You’re supposed to be in bed,” she mumbled against him, turning her face to hide against the fabric of his robes, trying to push away the memory of blood covering her hands and how close he had come to leaving her. “You shouldn’t be up yet.”

“Then I should go get back into bed, shouldn’t I?” 

He pulled away slightly, enough to take her face into his hands, and rubbed his thumbs across her cheeks to brush her tears from her skin. This show of tenderness merely caused her to cry harder, and she clenched her fists against him in frustration and stale panic. “You saved my life, Lin,” he whispered, leaning forward to kiss her forehead and then her nose. “Again, I should add,” he said with a small smile as he closed the distance between them to press his lips to hers.

She kissed him back fiercely, her emotions running high until they spilled over completely. She could feel his hands pushing aside her dressing gown and moving gently down to her hips, urging her closer, and she complied without resistance, needing to feel him against her, warm and alive and _there_. His lips moved slowly away, over her cheek to her jaw, stopping at her ear. He kissed the soft skin under her earlobe before murmuring, “I want to make love to you, Lin.”

It was so soft, the affectionate words brushing over her ear with his breath. She cupped his face, tugging him back around to bring their mouths together again before he could notice the way her body was trembling. He already had, though, she knew, but he wouldn’t say so.

“Tenzin,” she said lowly, lips still against his, “you’re still healing.”

“You are, as well.”

She clutched at him, pulling him even closer and wrapping her arms up around his back. He could feel her fear for him through her touch and he tightened his hold, breaking the kiss to embrace her fully. She fell against him, fitting into his arms so perfectly and nestling her head under his chin.

“I don’t want you to leave my sight again,” she said with a hitching laugh, “as if that could ever happen. Spirits, Tenzin, I haven’t been so scared in such a long time. I’d have died if -”

“Hush,” he soothed, kissing the top of her head. “You made quite certain nothing bad happened to me. Thank you for that, truly.”

She just exhaled the breath from her lungs, squeezing her eyes closed as she listened to his heart beating solidly under her ear, calling to her as steadfastly as his words and finally driving her fears away. “I think I could sleep now, if you stayed.”

“So could I.” 

xXx

The ringing phone dragged Lin forcefully from her slumber only three hours later just before sunrise. Tenzin’s arms tightened around her even as she reluctantly turned to bring her head away from his chest, reaching blindly for the receiver. He grumbled in his sleep, rolling with her to keep her close.

“Beifong,” she mumbled, fighting back a yawn.

“Chief!” Della’s excited voice met her ear, igniting her brain to fire a bit faster to keep up with her. “The men!” she continued, “those men who tried to abduct Master Tenzin! You should get down here right away, they’re willing to speak with you!”

Lin thanked her and quickly hung up the phone, her stomach starting to feel tight with all-too familiar apprehension. “Tenzin,” she said, pushing his arm away from her midriff. “I need to go, wake up.”

“Not yet,” he slurred, not wanting to move as he kept sleeping behind her, nuzzling his head against the warm skin of her shoulder and lazily planting a kiss there. “Don’t leave. Stay here with me.”

“Wake up.” She couldn’t help the little grin that tugged at her lips, though, as he slowly came to, opening his eyes when she turned over again in his arms to face him. She reached out to run her fingers over his bearded jaw, appreciating his nearness and forcing herself to ignore her welling sadness at the quickly approaching end to their time together. “I have to leave,” she told him softly once he was awake enough to understand. “The case is progressing at the station, they need me down there.”

He covered her hand, still on his cheek, and scooted clumsily forward to kiss her, both relishing the simple fact that they could. His tongue brushed almost hesitantly across her lower lip and she melted against him, her arm wrapping over his shoulder, holding him to her tightly. He pulled away after only another moment. 

“Be safe, Lin, please.”

“You do the same.” Her smile turned somewhat cheerless and she brought her hand back to cup his face. “I wish you could stay here, so I would know exactly where you are.”

“And so I would be here when you returned?”

She kissed him softly, lingering a bit longer than she had the first time. “That, too. Take your glider home, don’t walk, okay? I’ll probably be at work for a while, I can call when things calm down.”

“Lin,” he murmured, his eyes holding hers and not looking anywhere else. “I don’t want you to leave. Everything feels different now, different than it was only a week ago. I’m suddenly so afraid of losing this – I’m afraid that when we part, I won’t see you again.”

His fear was real, and she could feel his heart beating with her senses where her body was still touching his. Her eyebrows narrowed in concern, her fingers curling against his face. “What do you mean?”

“What you’re walking into, at the station this morning,” he tried to expand, finally breaking her gaze and turning his eyes down to her collarbone instead. “You’re surrounded by death lately, everywhere you go – and my own would have come just two nights ago if you hadn’t been there. What if -” He paused to take a breath, and Lin ran her thumb over his cheek. “What if they’ve decided to take you, instead?” he asked softly, the question falling into the small space between them. “What if they try to kill you next time? Their threat was so clear against you. I don’t know if I could handle losing you, just the thought terrifies me.” 

“You told me yesterday that the Dragon Clan wouldn’t beat me, Tenzin,” she reminded him with a little smile, but it vanished rather quickly when she saw just how distraught he was.

“I do still believe that. I just…I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

Lin nodded once in understanding and she shifted herself to wrap her arms around him, gently throwing her top leg over his. He pressed his face to her chest near her neck, falling into the embrace without resistance. “We’re on the same page, then,” she whispered. “Neither of us can bear to lose the other. What kind of mess have we gotten ourselves into here?”

He shook his head against her, pulling back enough to see her face so close to his. “It’s not a mess,” he said. “It is simply two people finding one another again.”

“And realizing exactly what that means,” she murmured in agreement, pressing her lips to his temple.


	9. Chapter 9

Della was waiting for her when she arrived at her office and the younger woman immediately descended, handing her the case file from her desk so she would not have to retrieve it herself. “We’ve brought them up,” she said before Lin had even had a chance to greet her. She gave her chief a sloppy bow and pointed to the large interrogation room on that floor. “They’ve given their names as Tsu and Kofa, Mako is running background on them right now.”

Lin nodded and started to walk toward the room, Della on her heels. “Get Hutou, have him watch from observation to transcribe the interview. I want you in there with him. Let me handle this.”

Della nodded and dashed off in the other direction to find the secretary. Lin waited until she saw them both go into the room on the other side of the one she was about to enter before swiping the metal cell open with her bending and walking inside, face stormy and head held high. The two men were sitting shackled to the table across from one another. A guard was there with them and Lin dismissed him. He bowed and exited, closing the wall back behind him to leave her alone with the men she had fought. She set the file on the table.

They stared up at her, almost afraid now that they were the only three in the room.

“Which of you is Tsu?” she asked sharply. A sallow-faced young man attempted to raise his hand, but was stopped quickly by the restraint around his wrist. His shoulders slumped and he looked up at her like an animal headed for the knife. “And you,” she said, turning to the other man, “are Kofa?” He nodded silently.

Lin crossed her arms, legs shoulder-width apart and feet solid against the floor. Intimidating and frightening and she gazed down her nose at them with narrowed, angry eyes.

“You are already being charged with the abduction of a citizen of Republic City and two counts of attempted murder,” she said coldly. “A sentence that will keep you imprisoned for the rest of your lives. If you tell me everything – and I mean _everything_ – you know about the Dragon Clan, I will speak with your trial council to have your sentences swayed to something perhaps a bit more palatable.”

The two men nodded quickly, their heads bouncing up and down as they held to her every word.

“First,” she asked, “what do you do inside this organization?”

Tsu spoke up quickly, hastening to give her any bit of information she wanted. “She calls us runners, ma’am! We just do whatever we’re asked to do, no questions asked!”

“Do you get any compensation?”

“Yes,” Kofa said with a nod. “Five hundred to two thousand yuan a run, depending on the job.”

“These jobs,” Lin asked, not bothering to slow her pace of questions. She knew Hutou was on the other side of that mirror writing down everything passing in this room, he could keep up with her flow regardless of how quickly she pressed them. “What are they?”

“Loads of different things,” the first man said, looking to his companion for confirmation. He nodded again. “Just escorting someone new to town, I did that once. Picking up packages, finding good restaurants – she likes quiet places -”

“Yeah, she does business from a few, doesn’t like to bother busy crowds -”

“I’ve done shopping before, too, gone to the apothecary for certain things, she always gives a list -”

“I picked up a delivery from the port once,” Kofa added to the growing supply, “brought it directly to her bank for the safety deposit box, she didn’t even need to see the contents.”

“I fed her bear dog once.”

“Okay,” Lin interrupted, “so you do odds and ends. How did that lead you to abducting Master Tenzin and getting involved in that level of violence?”

Tsu fell silent, and it was Kofa who said, “We didn’t know that’s what we were doing last night, I swear it. Nasak is the one who usually does things like that, he rarely ever takes runners along. He prefers members from the upper ranks to join him for the – for the – the jobs where people die. I don’t want to kill anyone,” he whispered, horrified, eyes falling to the table. “I think he brought us because we were the only ones there when she gave the order, and we couldn’t wait. A call came that his target was suddenly nearby and we needed to move.”

“Nasak is the Waterbender,” Lin said. 

Tsu nodded his confirmation. “Did you really kill him?”

“Only because he was going to take my life if I didn’t use force to stop him,” she replied, looking at him clearly. “And the rest of you.” They cowed under her glare, both lowering their gazes. She opened the file and found sketches from the coroner’s office depicting the tiny red tattoos on the dead men’s toes. “These,” she asked, redirecting their attention, “are these marks of rank?”

“Yes,” Tsu said. “We both only have one. Someone like Nasak, in the upper rank, he has five. I think there are – were – three of them.”

“All like Nasak, who orchestrated murders?”

Kofa shook his head, his lips pulled down in a thin, sickened frown. “No, only Nasak and one other did – did those. The third is a lady, she’s her advisor.”

Lin shuffled quickly through the file again, locating photographs from the crime scene at the bar where Fen Tao and Puya had been murdered. “Why were these two people killed in their own bar?” She slid the gruesome pictures to the middle of the table. Kofa looked away, his face pale, and Tsu appeared as though he wanted to run from everything.

“Us in the lower ranks, we only hear what’s rumored,” Tsu almost wailed. “But – but it’s pretty well known that she’s been trying to import more than just expensive fabric and inks and stuff the last few months. She found a contact somewhere in the Earth Kingdom who has access to these – these plants -”

“She’s making poisons to sell on the black market,” Kofa interjected, unable to keep still. He was so pale now Lin was slightly worried he might vomit, but truthfully she didn’t care much just then. “Poisons and toxins, and some kind of drugs for personal use. She wanted these people to -” He finally broke out a stifled sob. “She wanted this lady to get more illegal plants through a family member, and for her husband to import them with the wares for his bar. They refused, so she – she -”

“She killed them,” Lin finished softly. Finding a bit of sympathy, she gathered the photographs back into the file and closed the top. “Who is _she_ , then, this woman you’re referring to?”

“Milau,” Tsu whispered, the name off his tongue making his face lose its expression. “She lives in a mansion just inside the city, off Upper Common Street. The big white house with the green roof, number eleven.”

“She does the majority of her business from there,” Kofa added softly, head bowed. “A lot of us wait there during the day, too, for a call or order from her.”

“Why,” Lin murmured, her voice dropped considerably, “did she order you to take Master Tenzin?” It was a question that had been weighing on her heavily, and her heart beat quickly as the words came from her mouth.

Kofa answered again, taking a moment to look at her and away as he found his train of thought. “Nasak – Nasak said on the drive over it was to shake you up. Milau was getting – I don’t know, she was getting mad that you were on her trail all the time, and she wanted to make you stop. Nasak didn’t think you’d be there to…to… He was going to send a ransom in the next day, I think.”

“Was Nasak going to take Tenzin’s life if I did not cooperate with this ransom demand?”

Both Tsu and his friend shook their heads, mumbling varying degrees of “I don’t know” under their breaths. Lin nodded, done with her questions, and picked up the file. She turned to leave, inhaling quickly to steady herself with the information she’d gathered as she raised her hand to open the metal door.

“Chief Beifong?”

She turned again at Kofa’s call to find him staring at her sadly. “Is Master Tenzin all right? When I realized it was him we – I’ve always liked him very much – I wanted to leave, but Nasak…” He couldn’t finish his sentence and lowered his head in shame. 

“Master Tenzin is just fine,” Lin told him, her answer sharp but still not nearly as harsh as it could have been considering her rising anger.

Immediately upon leaving the room, Lin rammed her fist into the wall so hard it broke through the lacquered wooden panel to the stone underneath. “Our ships pass her house once every two hours in their standard route,” she snarled at a very startled Mako, who just happened to be standing there when she emerged. “She was right under our fucking noses _this entire fucking time_! Tell the next patrol to look for that specific house, I want to know the second they find it. I want to know everything down to the number of tiles on that spirit damned _roof_!” she snapped at him, and he quickly leapt to obey.

xXx

Only an hour later there was a very soft knock on the door, and Lin raised her head from her hands just as Jinora slowly looked inside to find her. The girl’s face was drawn and tears reddened her eyes the moment they met Lin’s. “Your secretary wasn’t at his desk,” she said after a beat of hesitation. “May I come in?”

Lin stood, gesturing for her to have a seat. Jinora, though, just came all the way in and closed the door, stopping there, and Lin took a few steps around her desk to come closer, quickly growing concerned when the tears leaked over her face. “What’s the matter? Did something happen?”

Jinora shook her head, but she bit her lip and lowered her eyes from Lin’s intense gaze. “My dad - ” She broke off, jumping slightly when Lin grasped her arm to urge her to continue. “I think my dad is leaving Mom.”

“What?” 

Of all things Jinora may have told her, that was absolutely the furthest from her mind as one that might potentially happen. Lin’s hand shook and she removed it quickly from the girl’s arm, wrapping it around herself and recoiling as her heart spasmed in her chest. _This was too much, far too much, to deal with right now._ “What are you talking about, how do you know this?”

The teenage Airbender began to cry in earnest, looking at Lin with a lost expression that only made the chasm in her chest widen. “I overheard them arguing a few minutes ago. They still are,” she said, the words hitching through her throat. “They weren’t really _arguing_ , though, just – just talking. They were both so sad. They were in Dad’s study, they didn’t know I was there. Is he leaving us for you?” she asked through her tears, still coherent enough to sound angry.

“No, oh, Jinora – no, I never asked him to do anything of the sort, I promise you.”

All of a sudden, Lin felt her world changing, shifting, and falling in around her. When she and Tenzin had parted that morning, never on her life would she have imagined he was going home to speak to his wife. Part of her was thrilled beyond belief, but the other part – the part she felt right then, with his daughter and at the prospect of the fallout as it so quickly unfolded – was terrified at what was happening, so far out of her control. And now, right now, with everything going on… 

Jinora’s face was heartbroken, and she knew her own was quite alarmed.

“I thought he loved her,” Jinora whispered.

“He does!” Lin told her quickly, falling to her knees to come closer to her height and taking her hands into her own. “Jinora, he does. Just as he loves you and your sister and your brothers. His ability to love is incredible, and that is never, ever going to change, do you understand?” She waited for her to nod before continuing. “There are just so many different types of love in the world.” 

“But Mom - ” Jinora hiccupped and blinked, looking away. “Mom always says Dad is her soulmate. How can she be wrong?”

Lin was silent for a moment, aching and terribly afraid of saying the wrong thing. She squeezed the girl’s hands tightly in hers, wetting her lips with her tongue before speaking and choosing her words carefully. “I’ve always had this opinion on soulmates,” she said softly. “All of us, you, me, your mother and father – we have soulmates everywhere, many of them. Who is your best friend?”

“Kai,” she answered immediately, only growing confused after she realized what she had responded to.

“Don’t you feel as though you’ve known him forever, even though he has only been in your life for a few years?” Jinora nodded again, extracting a hand to wipe across her cheeks. “He is a soulmate, a person always fated to come to you from a previous lifetime. Your sister, she and Meelo are definitely soulmates, I’d bet my family fortune they’ve been siblings before.” Lin paused for just a moment, gathering herself through her running thoughts. “Your mother and father – they _are_ soulmates, your mother is not wrong. They just…I suppose they were just not meant to be bonded the way she initially thought, but that does not mean she was ever wrong about Tenzin being one of her soulmates.”

This seemed to sink in and Jinora relaxed a bit, swallowing and wiping her face again. She wasn’t angry now even if she was still very upset and she took a deep breath, meeting Lin’s concerned eyes. “He does love you, though, doesn’t he? That’s why all this is happening.”

“It’s so complicated,” Lin began, though seeing the irate look come back over her face as an argument formed, she frowned and sighed. “We never really spoke about it, but perhaps. Jinora, believe me when I say I never asked him to – and he never _intended_ to. Life has a way of running away from you. Sometimes you can get it back under control…and sometimes you can’t.”

There was not a chance to expound on this any further, though, as the door to Lin’s office flew open again and Della ran inside with a piece of parchment in her hand. “They’ve found the house, Chief!” she cried, looking to her desk in momentary confusion before finding her kneeling on the floor with Jinora. She blushed fiercely and immediately dropped into a low bow, realizing then she had barged inside without knocking, but Lin stood and took the report from her anyway. 

Jinora backed away, watching the exchange hesitantly. “Should I just come back later, then?”

“I’ll come to you,” Lin said, giving the girl her full attention, “I promise. We’ll talk about this as much as you want.”

Jinora gave her a thin smile and left the room. 

“Chief, I apologize, I was out of line,” Della said, genuine anxiety in her voice. Lin just waved her hand dismissively and looked at the paper again, trying very hard to push everything she had just learned from her mind to think about when she could actually focus. There was a map of the upper quadrant of the city printed with a notation marked in red – Milau’s home.

“Call the squads together,” Lin said. “We’re taking everyone available. Let’s shut the Clan down for good.”

xXx

The raid happened very quickly. When the airship passed for its standard rotation over the upper quadrant, another three came with it along with fifteen automobiles through the streets. Lin made the order, and her police squads descended on the house from sky and ground, covering every inch of the property before a single person could flee. She led the push inside herself.

The house was beautiful, filled with glossy bamboo floors and high arched ceilings that reached the second story. It oozed opulence and wealth. Clan members scattered as the door was shattered, but they were quickly overrun by officers and dragged out to the vans. A woman wearing a rich sapphire-colored gown to set off her blue eyes and dark hair appeared at the top open landing of the stairs, looking down in fury over the railing.

“Milau,” Lin called up to her, already making for the stairs, “by the authorities of Republic City, you are under arrest.”

She allowed herself to be taken and marched down into the entryway to join several of her recruits. Her expression, however, was almost smug, and she shifted her weight from foot to foot as Lin grasped her arm to shackle her wrists. Lin was grudgingly forced to move with her, almost waddling together, until Lin’s back was to the wall and she finally got her to stop by bending shackles onto her ankles as well.

“Let’s get them out of here,” Lin said, jerking Milau forward. The woman glared at her angrily, her eyes darting over the other officers swarming through her home until finding something specific and snapping back to Lin’s face.

“Brave,” she spat, resisting for only a moment when Della came forward to take her arm. “Brave and stupid. You would have let us be, _Chief_.”

“If you thought for one second I was going to allow your little group to keep infesting my city the way you have been,” Lin growled, her gaze narrowing furiously, “ _you_ are the one who has been stupid. Della, take her to the ship for transport. Jaluu, get your team together and search the house.”

“The coiled serpent will not die!” Milau yelled, voice carrying though the crowd.

A panel in the wall opened at Lin’s back. She spun quickly but, before she could do more than see a Metalbender she recognized as a man she had fired several years ago, he had broken her armor with his bending and shoved a large steel blade through her stomach. She felt it pinching her front and heard the clang of it penetrating the back of her hauberk against the mechanism holding her cables, and it was only then she felt blinding pain sear through her body. He smirked cruelly at her, blood already staining his fingers, and sprinted back through the passage. She fell to her knees in vague shock, eyes rolling up to the high ceiling as shouts broke out around her, already dim in her ringing ears. Arms caught under her shoulders before she collapsed completely. 

All she could think about as consciousness flitted away beyond her reach was Tenzin, somewhere very far from her.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the final chapter. Thank you to everyone who has been reading. I hope you all enjoyed the story just as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Sunlight was bright against her eyelids. Lin turned her face away from the beam, not wanting it to continue disturbing her. An ache radiated up through her body from her core even at that small movement and she stopped quickly at the throbbing. Heaviness weighed on her through a thick haze, limbs heavy. She had no idea where she was.

“Lin?”

The voice called her from the hazy darkness and she pushed herself toward it, wanting to get out of the uncomfortable shell she was so suddenly drowning in.

“Are you waking up, Lin?” the familiar voice asked again, and this time she felt pressure as someone picked up her hand.

She held onto that feeling, slowly able to tear herself away from the fog to open her eyes. Whitewashed walls began to come into focus, wooden ceilings above, and wide, curtained windows. The hospital. She was in the hospital, but she couldn’t remember – wait. Jinta. He had opened a hole in her armor and…and stabbed her through it. Memories began to filter back, some more quickly than others.

Her eyes slid from the ceiling back to the windows, and then to a person sitting beside her in a chair near the bed.

Suyin beamed back at her, teary-eyed and red-faced. She squeezed Lin’s hand tightly in hers, bringing it up to her chest. “Thank the spirits, Lin, we thought you weren’t going to come back to us.” She kissed the back of her knuckles. “The poison on that sword, it was something the healers had never seen before.”

“Poison?” Lin rasped, trying to focus on Su.

“It completely coated the blade that horrible man impaled you with,” she explained, her eyes watering as she put into words what was obviously something painful for her to think about. Lin was just having a difficult time following what was going on at all and she blinked slowly. “It was manufactured specifically to stop blood from clotting and prevent it from carrying air through your body. It got into your organs, they all started to shut down. Oh, Lin, you almost died.”

“What are you doing here?”

Suyin laughed, a wet sound through her tears, and she released her hand back down to the blankets. “You really aren’t understanding any of this right now, are you?”

Lin was, to an extent, but she didn’t exactly care right then. She just blinked again, trying to keep her eyes open and on her sister when she felt that darkness calling again to bring her back into sleep. “You’ve been unconscious for almost six days. Tenzin called me, he thought I should – thought I should come, just in case.”

“Tenzin,” Lin murmured the moment she absorbed his name, “I want Tenzin, please.”

“Well,” Su grumbled, standing from her chair, “at least you said ‘please’. I thought you’d be happy to see me!” There was no venom to the barb, though, and she leaned down to kiss Lin’s forehead. “He hasn’t left your side the entire time, except to sleep or get food – which is where he went just now. He will be thrilled when he sees you awake. Give me just a minute, I’ll go get him. Oh, Mom is here, too, by the way.”

Suyin left the room and Lin closed her eyes again, giving in to the weight closing in over her. It was only after a few beats the rest of her sister’s words about Toph sunk in without really leaving an impact through the fog clouding her mind, other than a vague sense of dread. Or perhaps simply confusion. It felt like both only a moment and an entire lifetime when she distantly heard the door open, light, familiar footsteps swift across the smooth wooden floors.

“Lin…”

She forced herself to look, and this time she saw Tenzin standing a few paces away. The second her eyes found his, he broke into a huge smile, tears gathering to fall over his cheeks until they caught in his beard. “Everyone is crying today,” Lin muttered, a hint of wry amusement to her tone. “I don’t get it, did something bad happen?”

Tenzin rushed to her side, not bothering to find Suyin’s vacated chair as he took her face into his hands, leaning down to kiss her on the lips without hesitation or consideration for how exposed they were here. She could feel the dampness of his tears against her skin, fresh and hours old, and wished her arms would cooperate to reach up for him. Instead they remained heavy as stone beside her as he moved his mouth to her cheek, her jaw, her neck, back to her cheek and up to her forehead, unable to stop touching her.

She turned her head to find his again, seeking his touch as much as he wanted to give it, and he pressed his lips to hers once more. She opened her mouth slightly, drawing him in, and finally got one hand to lift sluggishly up to curl over his wrist.

“So _that’s_ why you wanted to see Tenzin,” Suyin said slyly from the doorway, where she was leaning against the frame with her arms crossed. “Mom told me about whatever it is you two are doing. Guess she was right. Damn, Lin, I owe her seventy yuan. I personally thought you had more self-control than that.”

The fog was slowly starting to ebb away, leaving her much more clearheaded than she had been when she first came to, and she glared at her sister. “You’re making bets about me, too? What the bloody spirits is wrong with this family?”

Su didn’t answer, though she at least had the decency to divert her gaze to her already clean fingernails. Tenzin pulled away from her, his face flushed with a pleased reddish hue, and Lin turned her attention back to him, her hand still on his wrist. “Tenzin,” she murmured to bring his eyes to hers. “The man who did this, Jinta – he was arrested, wasn’t he? There were officers everywhere, he couldn’t have gotten away.”

He and Suyin shared a quick glance that was not lost on her. “What?” she pressed, starting to get agitated quickly at being left out like a child. “Surely he did not get out of that room.”

“No,” Tenzin confirmed, taking a moment to clear his throat. “He was taken into custody immediately.”

“Then why are you suddenly so afraid?” she asked. “I might be out of it, but I can still feel your heart beating itself out of your chest.” She looked at Suyin herself now, but she was looking to Tenzin, as well, waiting for him to answer this question.

“He was executed yesterday,” he whispered.

“ _What_?” Lin exclaimed, aghast. She tried to sit up in the bed, but Tenzin quickly put his hands on her shoulders to still her. “We have never allowed an execution here, _never_. Your father – Aang wanted this city to be a place of peace, not one where - Why on earth…fuck, Tenzin.”

“Raiko overruled me. I tried, Lin, I did. Jinta’s trial was held the day after you were admitted, before anyone know whether you would survive -”

“That is hardly even attempted murder!” Lin interrupted angrily, speaking over him and ignoring the obvious pain in his voice. “Cowardice, coming at me like he did, but certainly not a crime worthy of -”

“Be that as it may,” he continued calmly as he could, “he confessed to nearly half the murders the Clan orchestrated since they took power, all between him and the Waterbender you killed in battle. Taking your life, he said, would be his…his crowing achievement. He _hated_ you.” The words made his face pinch with real fury, and she slid her hand up his wrist to close around his fingers. He squeezed them tightly. “They wouldn’t let me sit on the trial council, but it came back fully against him in less than a day. Raiko took several hours to decide the final ruling, and I did everything I could to convince him to spare Jinta’s life. He called me – well, he called me a ‘pacifist who cared more about the life of a murderer than the life of our Chief of Police’ and that was that.”

Suyin snorted. “If only he could have seen you just a minute ago, sucking her face off with your wife at home. I’m sure _that_ would have changed his opinion on your feelings toward the esteemed _Chief of Police_.”

Lin opened her mouth to retort, but the words died on her tongue when, very suddenly, she remembered the conversation she’d had with Jinora just before leaving the station for Milau’s home. Tenzin had no idea she knew of what he had done, everything had happened so quickly. She didn’t respond, though he noticed her hesitation. He brought her hand to his mouth, pressing his lips to her palm.

“Suyin said our mother is here,” Lin said instead, wishing to change the subject. That was the only one she could think of to grasp at, but she took it anyway. “Why?”

Tenzin looked back at Su, who shrugged and came fully into the room to reclaim her chair. “I would assume to see you,” he replied.

“No,” Suyin said, scooting the chair closer to the bed to be better included in their conversation. “She had just arrived in Zaofu when I got Tenzin’s call, about you being in such bad shape. She did come of her own free will, though,” she added as an afterthought, her head turned to the side as she leaned over to rest it in her open hand. “She _may_ actually have been worried, she didn’t talk most of the way.” 

“Well, where is she, then?” Lin asked, looking between them both.

“On the island,” Tenzin supplied, “torturing Bolin and making my wi – Pema blush like a schoolgirl every chance she gets. Pema hadn’t met her before, your mother is having a field day.”

“So basically causing mayhem and making everyone miserable, as she does,” Suyin said with a laugh. “She repaired your armor.” This was said softly, and Lin stared at her sister as she spoke. This act, insignificant though it may seem, had more weight than anything else Toph may have done. “It still needs to be polished, but she repaired every dent and scrape, no matter how small. The hole is completely gone.”

“She’s never done that before,” Lin whispered in genuine surprise, “she always told us an officer’s armor was their own responsibility.”

“Yes,” Su agreed quietly, giving her a small smile. She sat straight again and reached out to brush her knuckles over Lin’s cheek, leaning forward to kiss her there before standing. “There were handfuls of people clamoring to get in here, but the healers would only let Tenzin and me in your room while you were ill,” she explained, her voice back to its normal, chipper tone. “I should probably go spread the word that you’re awake and doing just fine now so everyone will finally calm down.”

xXx

Milau’s trial began only a few days later. 

Lin begged to be released from the hospital at least during the day to attend, but she was given a very strict no – and so she demanded Tenzin leave her side, which he had been loath to do, in order observe the proceedings for her. He would return in the evenings long enough to give her the detailed notes he had taken for her benefit, as well as his own insight on how things were progressing, before leaving again to be with his family. Or with his children, at any rate. Her time with him was so sparse in those few days that they did not have time to speak on any more personal matters than the trial and so she did not press the matter with Pema, instead waiting for him to bring it up himself. She knew he would as soon as he was ready.

During Tenzin’s absence, Suyin distracted her from her confinement as best she could with a pai sho board scavenged from somewhere in the building or various card games between healing sessions, catching her up on all the gossip she did not really care to follow. Toph never came to visit her, though she couldn’t find it in herself to be surprised. All her mother did was send word with Su that her armor had been sent home before she wheedled Opal into flying her to the Fire Nation. Suyin herself left not long after. 

The healing continued marvelously once the toxins had been fully extracted, and by the end of the week she was finally released from her so-called prison with a clean bill of health.

The bright afternoon sun beat down on her, warming her skin through the chilly air as she walked outside to meet Tenzin, who was waiting for her by the doors. He reached for her arm, linking his together through hers as though they were going on a pleasant stroll through the streets the way they had so many times when they were younger. Their elbows fit together easily without the metal barrier of her armor, and she leaned a bit closer at the contact.

“Are you ready to go home?” he asked her with a wide smile.

“Very,” she replied, turning her head to look at him. “If they kept me there any longer, I may have gone out a window in the middle of the night.”

“I’ve been by a few times, to water your plants and dust,” he told her as they began to walk. “And to bring some fresh food for your icebox, some of it needed to be replaced yesterday. I also changed the sheets. They still seemed rather clean, but I figured it would be nice for you to sleep in your own bed with fresh linens as well.”

“That was very kind, Tenzin, thank you.” It truly was kind, and the gesture behind his open willingness to help made her heart swell.

Several minutes passed in silence before he said, “I also – well, I also brought a few of my own things. If, of course, you would like me to stay with you for a few days. I’ve not been presumptuous enough to unpack, but I certainly want to.”

She gave him a little grin, reaching for the keys that should have been in the pocket of her jacket as they reached her door. They weren’t there, and she hesitated for just a moment in bafflement when he handed her own keyring to her with an amused apology. Her grin turned into a true smile, and she unlocked the door to let them both inside. He had drawn the curtains away from the windows to let the light come in, and her home welcomed her back as though it missed her as much as she missed it.

Tenzin began to walk away toward the kitchen to gather something for their lunch, and Lin reached out to grab his wrist before he could fully leave her side. He turned to look at her, his expression open and expectant.

“I’d like you to stay,” she said clearly. 

He suddenly dropped her gaze and, as he did, she felt his pulse hammer with anxiety. Her eyebrows narrowed in concern and she took a step closer. “Tenzin?”

“Lin -” He shook his head, looking at her with a shimmer of fear in his eyes and then away again quickly. “I should have told you this sooner, I’m so sorry I haven’t yet – Pema and I -”

Lin interrupted his stream of words with a finger to his lips, moving it to his chin to bring his head up out of its bowed turn so he would look at her fully. “I know, Tenzin, it’s all right. Jinora,” she supplied before he could ask. “That daughter of yours, she’s as sharp as you are. She heard you and Pema talking and came to – well, I suppose she came to confront me about it instead of you. We left on somewhat decent terms just before I took my officers to Milau’s home for the arrest.”

He seemed both relieved and upset by this revelation, and she pressed her palm to his cheek. “I had no idea she knew as much as she did, she never told me,” he murmured. “I’ve spoken with the children as openly as I could, Pema and I both have, but – did she really hear our conversation as it was happening? Is she all right?”

“It’s been two weeks since I spoke with her,” Lin answered honestly, “and I would like to do so again because I left with the impression she had more to ask, though yes, she seemed to handle it as well as any child her age could. She understands more than I gave her credit for.” 

Her words calmed much of his apprehension and, feeling his heartbeat begin to change, she gently raised her other hand and brushed her fingers along the side of his head. “Oh, Tenzin,” she whispered. “I love you, very much.” It wasn’t quite what she had wanted to say, but she was having difficulty finding the right way to articulate exactly how she was feeling – the exhilaration, the amazement, at what he had done to be with her. It was an act far larger than she had ever imagined him making, and the idea of it all was still almost a dream.

“How are you feeling?” he asked, veering the conversation away from where it had been quite suddenly. The sentiment behind his question was sincere, however, and she grinned at him, willing to let the previous subject go for the moment.

“Like it never happened,” she said. “Really,” she added at his dubious look, and she pulled away slightly to grasp the hem of her shirt and pull it up just above her bellybutton to reveal the sculpted muscle of her abdomen and a very thin, almost invisible, line of pink off to the side. “See, look, the scar is already almost gone. I can’t feel it at all. I’m completely fine now.”

Tenzin reached out a hand to press two timid fingers to the mark, seeing it for the first time. His eyebrows came together as he studied it carefully, and Lin took his hand, pressing it flat against her stomach and moving it gently to her side and away from the old wound. His skin warmed against hers. “Take me to bed,” she whispered.

His eyes rose to hers, misplaced concern blossoming there. “Are you feeling ill? Are you ti-”

“Tenzin,” she murmured with a small, airy laugh, stepping closer to push a leg between his so she could press her entire front against his body. She kissed the corner of his mouth, then drew her lips over his jaw to nip at his ear. “ _Take me_ ,” she repeated lowly, “to _bed_.”

He didn’t need to be told again.

xXx

Lin’s desk, it appeared, had been turned into a shrine during her absence. Flowers, incense, stubs of lit candles, bits of food and money, small prayers written on folded parchment, paper lanterns in various colors – there were so many that some had tumbled to the floor, where others had come along to neaten the pile and add to it. She stopped in her doorway to stare at the mass of items in surprise, blinking at it and unsure of what to do at the obvious outpouring of devotion and love toward her.

Hutou came in just a moment later, her usual morning cup of black tea in his hand with the log from the previous night for her to look over as she always did.

“Did – did all of this come from my officers?” she asked him.

“Most did,” he replied with a gentle smile. “Some others came from people in the city. They asked permission to come up and leave things for your wellbeing. Truly, it only took about a day before your desktop became overwhelmed, but I wasn’t sure where to start directing everyone to leave their items when they wanted them somewhere so personal to you in the hopes their prayers would better reach your ailing spirit.”

“I see,” Lin said rather breathlessly. “What in the world am I supposed to do with all this now?”

“I can have someone fetch a crate for you to have it packed away,” Hutou offered as she took her tea from him.

“Yes, do that please.”

She took a seat on the small sofa set against the far wall, seeing as her desk was very out of commission, and began to read through the thick log from not only the previous night, but those from the nearly two weeks she had been gone. It seemed everything had mostly returned to normal, for which she was grateful.

It was only thirty minutes later a knock on her doorframe brought her attention up, and she saw Tenzin standing there in some of his finer robes. “Are you ready?” he asked.

She nodded, finishing the last few sips of her tea and setting the cup down on the end table for Hutou to gather for her later. As she stood, he took in the amassed collection falling over her desk and he smiled widely. “I see quite a few people care very much about you,” he said happily.

Lin just scowled at him. “I haven’t been able to get any real work done, thanks to that mess,” she muttered, reaching around him for her coat. But she couldn’t help the note of pleased contentment from slipping into her words. It really did warm her, knowing people cared. She hadn’t realized she mattered so much to so many. “It should be cleared away by the time we get back.”

“That’s good,” he said for her benefit, offering her his arm. She took it without hesitation, allowing him to lead her from her office and out of the building.

Today was the final day of Milau’s trial. Even if she hadn’t been able to see the rest, Lin was absolutely going to be there to see the sitting council find her guilty. She and Tenzin found their seats in the packed chamber near the front, where he had the row reserved due to his seniority. His hand immediately found hers, squeezing her fingers tightly to let her know he was there regardless of the outcome.

Milau was already seated at her table, her lawyer looking troubled for the beginning of the verdict reading. She scanned the room, not paying attention to the man at her side, her dark blue eyes meeting Lin’s. She glared, fury still present even after the time passed, and turned her head to stare straight ahead. Lin took a breath and looked ahead as well.

The trial council, a carefully selected group of two women and three men chosen specifically for this case, filed in from a back hallway only a minute or so later to take their seats at the front around the ornate curved table. The lawyers, Milau's defender and the city's prosecutor, stood from their chairs to greet them. Milau herself remain seated, impassive and silent, her expression now closed behind an inscrutable mask she had obviously worn for many years.

Lin, her hand still encased in Tenzin's, turned her attention to the council as the head brought his gavel down to bring quiet into the room. It fell quickly, and he spoke. “My colleagues and I have been thinking over the case presented to us carefully during the recess the last two days,” he began, and Lin's fingers tightened unconsciously. “It is clear the woman brought before us is the culprit we have been looking for, and we have found her guilty of all crimes. Unless President Raiko finds her punishment to be otherwise, the five of us have determined she should be fated to spend the rest of her life in a high security ward with no contact with the outside world. However.”

He paused here to find a piece of paper from his robes, and both Lin and Tenzin tensed, eyes sliding over to meet briefly in the stiff silence.

“We received an urgent notice from the Fire Nation late last night requesting her extradition to stand trial there for similar injustices and we have decided to grant the request. It is likely, Miss Milau,” he said sternly as he looked directly at her, his voice hardening, “your punishment there for the crimes outlined will be far harsher than anything you would have faced here. If, for any reason, you find it fit to return to Republic City, you will be placed under our jurisdiction once more and will continue your sentence with us.”

The man turned to the officers standing off to the side, gesturing for them to come forward and take her. “Authorities on behalf of the Fire Lord are on their way as we speak. In the meantime, you will be enjoying the hospitality of our own jail for a few hours more. This case is now closed.”

He hit the gavel again and the trial council left the table first, leaving out the same hallway they entered through, then Milau out a side door under the custody of the police. The lawyers shook hands, the spectators slowly starting to mingle or walk away. Done, just like that. Lin didn't move.

“You did it,” Tenzin leaned over to whisper in her ear. “You won.”

She didn't respond, the whole situation rather surreal. There were still smaller trials going on - some that morning, even - for the many people found to be involved in the Clan, but the case, _all_ of the cases related to them she had been working on for almost a year...it was over.

Tenzin did not mind her silence, understanding why she was unable to find the words, and she was deeply grateful to him for simply being there with her as she continued to sit on the hard wooden bench, the world moving swiftly around them on to the next big event. He brought their clasped hands to his mouth to press his lips very gently to her fingers in a chaste little kiss before lowering them to the seat again and though Lin knew several people saw, she didn't care.

For the first time in what felt like far too long, it seemed as though her life was finally coming back under her control. Everything that had been just out of reach was settling in around her, warming through her soul and opening to reveal a path she never thought she'd see again.

“Thank you, Tenzin,” she said softly, “for coming so far with me.”

“Anything for you, Lin. Anything at all.”


End file.
